Clean water for a family
This life-saving water World Gift provides families with a supply of clean, safe water in their homes for drinking and cooking.
Fabiano watering crops.
Walking for water
Fabiano lives in a village in Karamoja, a rural area in the north-east of Uganda. The area is beautiful, with wide views and amazingly starry nights, but it is dry and windswept. Access to water can be a problem and there have been severe droughts.
Before they had a water supply, 14-year-old Fabiano was forced to walk for hours to gather water so his family could drink, cook and wash.
To arrive at school on time, Fabiano had to walk five kilometres for water before sunrise – despite the dangers of travelling in the dark.
“Water means a lot. It means life.”
How your fundraising helps
CAFOD supporters provided funds to build a solar-powered water pump in Fabiano’s village. Powered by the sun’s rays, the panel helps to pump water from a borehole underground and store it in the tank before it’s distributed to the community.
Life has changed
Fabiano says that, when the pump was installed in his village, “We had water available right near our homes. We were so jubilant about it and happy about it coming here. We knew life would change.”
Now Fabiano’s family can easily access clean, safe water. As Fabiano no longer has to walk for hours in the dark, he feels refreshed and able to focus at school. And when he is at home, he can easily water his vegetables. There’s now plenty to eat and extra vegetables to sell.
Sustainability
Whenever a water pump is installed, local people are trained to maintain it. Dennis, a water pump engineer and one of the local experts that CAFOD works with, explained, “We have to work through the leaders. We go from district to district training them.” The training means that communities have control over maintaining their own water supply in the long-term.