WASRAG - What our e-club member is doing about clean water

 
On October 1st, Rtn. Isis Mejias spoke for the organization "Go Blue for Clean Water".  Isis is a member of the Water and Sanitation Rotarians Action Group (WaSRAG). They are trying to raise some funds for a project in Cameroon.
 
At  the  request  of  Wasrag  and  Rotary  International,  a  team  headed  up  by  former  Ambassadorial Scholar to Brazil and a member of the Rotary E-club of Houston, Dr. Isis E. Mejias, visited Uganda with the objective of developing a water, sanitation, and hygiene (WaSH) needs assessment in the Rakai and Kalungu Districts in June 2014. After meeting with 100+ stakeholders in Uganda, the team found a profound neglect in the WASH area in 10 primary schools and the surrounding communities. The following needs were identified:
  1. Establish more water access points
  2. Establish operation and maintenance of water access points
  3. Establish sustainable water management structure: water usage committees
  4. Design and install water quality equipment with the supervision of a technical person
  5. Reduce turbidity in drinking water
  6. Reduce fecal contamination in drinking water
  7. Reduce the toxic chemicals in the drinking water
  8. Train local stakeholders to maintain/repair water quality equipment
  9. Establish a training program for school teachers, parents and pupils to learn hygiene management
  10. Reduce diseases related to sanitation
  11. Increase the number of stances in schools
  12. Decrease the open defection in villages
  13. Increase  the  continued  enrollment  and  retention  of  girls  in  schools  through the management of menstrual hygiene
  1. On September 26th, 2015 the RC of Kalisizo and the RC of Calgary launched the project “Water is Life- Sanitation is Health”, GG 1525222 (USD$301,377), with the help of 21 Clubs and 17 Districts from 8 countries around the world. This project, directed to 10,000+ beneficiaries, comprises 3 phases:
  2. Phase 1 includes a baseline development, education and training of water supply management, sanitation, and hygiene components in schools.
    Phase 2 includes the construction and retrofitting of water supply and sanitation systems, and practical training of village health teams (VHTs), water usage committees, and sub county health assistants.
    Phase 3 includes and waste management training program, as well as an income generating program to ensue sustainability of the program.
     
    During Phase 1, which concluded in April 2016, the RC of Kalisizo provided training to Parents and Teachers Association (PTA) members, school administrators, School Management Committee (SMC) members, local professionals, health inspectors, senior women, health club patrons and health club executive members and distributed reusable sanitary pads to adolescent girls. They also partnered with the University of Makerere to generate WaSH data in 20 additional primary schools and 5613 households from 60 villages.
    The project just started Phase 2 in September this year and will begin the installation of all the hardware:
    I) Construction of 9 new tanks and retrofitting of 4 existing tanks.
    II) Protection of ponds and springs.
    III) Repair of existing rain water harvesting systems.
    IV) Installation of 50 Biosand filters in all schools
    V) Installation of 50 latrine stances (5 latrine stances/school in 10 schools)
    VI) Practical education on the construction   and   maintenance   of   the   water   supply   and   quality   systems   as strict measure for sustainability.
WaSH education is part of the UN's Milenium Development Goals, as they are direct causes of poverty in many countries. The biggest gap in sustainability in Africa is not the lack of water sources, or the water quality. It is the lack of capacity development in the most vulnerable communities about WaSH practices. This is why the Rotary GG# 1525222 approached the training and education component in Phase 1, before moving on to the infrastructure installation and retrofit in Phase 2.
 
Isis will depart to Uganda on October 14th to meet with the RC of Kalisizo, and John Ridge, the primary contact of the RC of Calgary, to launch Phase 2 and bring news about the project to our local donors. In addition, our lovely President Adriane Miller, will be sawing some dresses to donate to the girls in the primary schools. If you have any interest in helping in this effort, either by donating cash, material, or sawing some dresses, or even small school supplies: pencils, notebooks, etc, please contact Dree or Isis. Isis will personally take all of these gifts to the schools herself.