For my first Microfinance Project I travelled to a small village in Eastern Uganda - Kachumbala. Here is the home to Amuno Rural Hub.
Amuno Rural Hub is an NGO which teaches literacy to youth in the Kachumbala community. Children come from far distances to learn to read, use the library and learn English. Hundreds of youth regularly visit Amuno Rural Hub after school, and during school holidays it becomes even more busy. Youth are divided into 3 classes based on reading ability (red, yellow, green). Older students in the green group become ‘literacy champions’, and help the younger ones learn to read. Amuno Rural Hub also has a food programme for the youth, a rabbit breeding programme for self-sustainability, and a savings programme for parents.
Kachumbala is located in a dry part of Uganda and many community members struggle with access to clean drinking water. During school holidays there is often a shortage of drinking water at Amuno Rural Hub, due to huge numbers of the children spending their whole day at the centre. The current water filtration system often breaks down and when it is working, it takes over 5 hours to filter 20 litres of water. This is not sufficient to meet the water needs of Amuno's beneficiaries.
After spending time at Amuno and seeing the great work they are doing in the community, I decided I would use some of my Microfinance budget to help them with their Water issue. I collaborated with the Ugandan Water Project, in order to implement two new, more efficient water filters at the centre. These new systems can filter 20 litres of water in just 30 mins, providing safe water to both the students and the wider Kachumbala community (on very hot days it is normal for people to stop by Amuno and take some water).
After delivering the filters to the centre with Sam (UPA), myself and the Amuno staff set the two new systems up in the courtyard and I trained them in proper usage and maintenance of the filters. I involved the staff in demonstrations of correct filter cleaning procedures and what to do if the filter gets blocked. This is to ensure the filters remain effective for a long time (Ugandan Water Project state 10 years if managed properly).
After a busy morning of implementation and training it was time for lunch! I joined the staff in preparing Posho (a Ugandan staple), Beans and Vegetables for the 200 children present at Amuno Rural Hub that morning. The younger children then returned home with full stomachs, leaving behind the staff and the literacy champions for our afternoon activities.
These activities consisted of various educational games with the literacy champions; teaching them about water-borne disease transmission (from faeces to mouth) and dividing them into teams to discuss methods of prevention and best practices for hygiene. I showed them the classic 'black pepper' hand-washing experiment, which demonstrates the importance of using soap (which we made 50 L of the week before at a liquid soap making class, and provided to Amuno Rural Hub). We also played games that touched on the topics of clean latrine standards and behaviours for infection avoidance. The idea behind doing these games with the literacy champions was so that they are more impactful with a smaller group and then they shall educate the younger children about what they learned.
Tony (founder of Amuno) informed me that they were able to do this the following week and that the younger children also enjoyed. He also mentioned that Amuno is already seeing great results with their new systems. Overall it was a successful Microfinance project, with long lasting impact to the community of Kachumbala!
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