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Completed: May 2024 Serves: A community of 439 adults, plus a school with an enrollment of 752 students from the surrounding area “We have been fetching dirty water deep in the valley, two miles from here. On the side of girls, it has been very risky to go there by ourselves. It was not safe at all and yet we had to fetch water. So, teachers have been accompanying us when it was the turn of girls to draw water from the valley ponds. Unfortunately, we have few teachers on our staff, meaning some lessons had to be missed by the different classes when teachers take on the duty to accompany the girls to the pond. However, with this borehole on our school compound, all those challenges have been done away with, for which we are very grateful." — Student at St. Vincent Kakomo Primary School    The student quoted above
Completed: April 2024 Serves: A community of 455 adults, plus a school with an enrollment of 653 students from the surrounding area A jubilant woman at the dedication ceremony shouted out, “Thank you for the clean water. We love you — we love those who have donated this water. How shall we ever thank you? You are so kind; you are so good. We never expected to have such a precious gift in our village."    The woman quoted above
Completed: April 2024 Serves: A community of 491 adults, plus a school with an enrollment of 683 students from the surrounding area “In addition to the distance being very far from where we have been fetching this water, the water itself has not been worth using for human consumption! It was dirty and sometimes smells bad. You cannot imagine how you have saved our children and the community from catching those diseases associated with drinking/using dirty waters." — Head teacher at Bright Future School   Completed: November 2023 Serves: A community of 310 families, plus a school with an enrollment of 778 students from the surrounding area Previous water source Celebrating the new well   Completed: November 2023 Serves: A community of 398 families, plus a school with an enrollment of 763 students from the surrounding area “For sure, you are not only donors, but our true friends. You live very far away from us, you have never seen us, but you were able to come to our assistance . . . So, if I call you friends, I am 100% right. Thank you very much for being so kind and generous to even people you have never known or seen. . . “I can even spend a full day telling you how beneficial [the borehole] is to us and how you have saved uncountable humanity’s lives. But I think from the little I have narrated, it is enough for you to read our hearts." —Kiwanuka Edward, village chairperson “The entire community is located in a swampy area with dirty water not fit for human beings. But it is the one we have been using for cooking and washing, together with animals because this is also cattle keeping area. Not only that, our children have been losing a lot of time daily because of long distances searching for water in those valleys, in the swamps. Also, collecting water on the side of our children at times has been very dangerous because some parts of the swamps are deeper. Some past years we experienced accidents of students drowning in those deeper areas." —Nakkazi Gorreth Ndibassa, head teacher at Kyabagamba Primary School  Completed: November 2023 Serves: A community of 438 adults, plus a school with an enrollment of 659 students from the surrounding area “Convey our sincere thanks to these donors, and tell them that they will never, ever imagine how they have saved us from using/drinking dirty water. Can you imagine that many people are coming from very far, as far as four miles away to collect water from this borehole? This means that there has been no such a water source with clean and safe waters in all this area . . . “Tell St. Thérèse Foundation that we do not have the correct words to thank them. Let the good Lord who is good all the time do that on our behalf." —Kimoga Isma, village chairperson   Completed: November 2023 Serves: A community of 552 adults, plus a school with an enrollment of 874 students from the surrounding area “Truly, our children in the school have been sharing water with animals. I, myself, have been one of the teachers sending these kids every day to a dirty pond to collect water to prepare their school meals. I have to admit that, but I had nowhere else to send them to. “But now, with such a good water source, I will proudly send them to fetch water knowing that what they will bring in those containers is very safe water, worthy drinking for human beings. For that reason, thank you dear donors, for saving not only our children but the entire community from the many diseases associated with unsafe waters." —Teacher at St. Kizito school    Celebrating and giving thanks for their clean water source
Serves: 210 people Completed: May 2023   It was obvious by looking at the green algae floating in the spring that the water was not safe for human consumption. Carlos M. said, “The water in this source is very contaminated, which has led me to water-related diseases. It has really affected my studies. Last term, I did not go to school because I was so sick, and because I didn't do the exams, my teacher asked me to repeat the same class."   “My goal is to ensure that my children are now concentrating [on] their studies. This is because I used to disturb them a lot to come and fetch the water very early in the morning and in the evening because it was so hectic for me to come and fetch water. But now the water point is accessible even during the rainy season, and I will be able to come and fetch water anytime and not disturb them but [allow them] to reach the school early enough for them to concentrate [on] their studies," Brian said.
Serves: 400 people Completed: April 2023 The following is an excerpt from a project report describing how people collected water from the spring before it was protected: “Accessing the pool is very difficult. Community members must climb or slide down the steep bank to the bottom to retrieve water, then lay a collection container sideways in the water to fill it while they balance on rocks. Understandably, it is even more treacherous to climb back out of the cavity with a heavy, full water container, trying hard not to spill the contents, especially during the rainy season when the grass and mud bank become slippery." Referring to the newly protected spring, Geter Pondi said, "The status of this community has changed due to this new baby we have. He has brought joy, and I feel [my] life has changed."    Completed: February 2023 Serves: Community of 356 households, plus two schools which draw from the surrounding area with a combined enrollment of 1,498 students From a “Nightmare" to a “Dream" “It is like a dream, and nobody was expecting such an event to take place within our surroundings of launching a borehole because water has been a major problem to our school. The pupils have been walking long distances looking for water to use at school and they have been fetching it from dams, sharing it with animals. Our school is located in cattle corridor areas, which at times experience drought throughout the year, and during such seasons the dams get dried and this has been a challenge to our school. When it comes to preparing pupils’ and teachers’ lunch, it has been a great problem because sometimes they have been missing their meals due to lack of water. Learners have been facing a challenge of thirst during school days and even water they have been receiving from the dams, it has been not good for the health status of our learners.” —Lawrence Joseph Kizito, head teacher, St. Charles Lwanga Maddu Catholic School   Deputy head teacher, Maddu Secondary School
Completed: January 2023 Serves: A community of 216 households, plus two schools which draw from the surrounding area with a combined enrollment of 1,135 students The community's water source was a pond, which they shared with animals. Located almost two kilometers from St. Michael Primary School, the head teacher said it could take the children almost three hours to make the trip to collect water. “We are extremely happy because of this clean water source in our midst from our good friends of St. Thérèse Foundation in America. We have been having challenges of illnesses due to using dirty water all the past years. We tried to lobby for a clean water source like this from the government and other charity organizations but failed. Every request was being turned down. That is why we are indeed very grateful to St. Thérèse for responding to our plea, which was rejected by many." —Joseph Kalyowa, community chairman    Completed: November 2022 Serves: 245 people Some of Shitirira Community’s 245 people live an hour’s walk from John Murumba Spring, which is their only option for water. This is because John Murumba Spring is the only water point in the area that continues flowing through the dry season. With multiple trips’ worth of water needed each day, community members can waste an inordinate amount of time just getting the water they need to drink and accomplish daily tasks like cooking and cleaning. “In my own family, my husband has been taking medicine for typhoid [for] almost one year now without recovering,” said Elizabeth J., 46, a local businesswoman. “He is not recovering. We are using a lot of money on medication.” In this community, Elizabeth’s story isn’t unique. Nearly every community member who was spoken with mentioned being unable to afford the high costs of medication.      Completed: November 2022 Serves: 200 people The lines to fetch water at Benson Lumbasi Spring get so long that sometimes people give up and go home. But water is essential for cooking, cleaning, and farming, not to mention drinking and staying alive. With all the time wasted in line, one would hope the water from the spring would at least be of good quality. Instead, it infects community members — especially children and the elderly — with sometimes-deadly infections like cholera and typhoid.      Completed: August 2022 Serves: Community of over 350 families, plus a school with an enrollment of over 600 students from the surrounding communities Heartbreaking stories from this community shine a light on the dangers faced when collecting water. During dry seasons, children were forced to walk some three miles in order to gather water from the finger-like swamps of Lake Victoria. Ten children from this community were kidnapped and killed in satanic sacrifices. In addition, girls have been raped and children have drowned while collecting water. You can imagine the relief and gratitude the people in Kiruddu now have for having a clean water source within the safety of their community. “This borehole ... is within the school itself and in the middle of the village and not in the valley where bad people can easily harm our children and nobody sees them. You have helped us to solve most of those problems. Thank you very much. I will not get tired of sending you to convey our sincere thanks to our donors for doing this for us – for providing us with clean and safe water. Tell them again that we, the people of Kiruddu, are so thankful and very happy indeed." – Kiruddu Chairman Patrick Kayiza   Completed: August 2022 Serves: Community of about 950 people, plus a school with an enrollment of 563 students from the surrounding communities In her speech at the handing-over ceremony, the head teacher, Irene Nalubega, said the children had wasted a lot of time having to wait for the cattle keepers to water their animals before they could draw water for the school and their homes. She also said there was a high risk of children drowning when fetching water from these deep dug ponds. A child was lost in such an accident last year. “The people of Katega village, including these school children, we have been sharing the dirty pond waters together with cows, goats, stray dogs, and snakes! Thus, with this clean and safe water in our midst, this makes me extremely, extremely, very happy.” – Paul Yiga, Katega village chairperson, at the handing-over ceremony    Sister Salome at the handing-over ceremony
Completed: August 2022 Serves: 350 people “I have used this water source for more than 40 years . . . Sometimes, when [I] am thirsty, when I see the water and imagine the source, the thirst goes away. Now that my grandchildren are suffering because of waterborne diseases, it will be my joy that they access clean and safe water in [the] future.” —Ayub Mwaka     Completed: December 2021 Serves: Community of about 2,200 people, plus a school with an enrollment of more than 1,000 students from the surrounding communities   People used to travel long distances to fetch water from this dirty pond which they shared with animals. Thank you presentation by students of St. Joseph Kibalinga Primary School
Completed: November 2021 Serves a community of about 2,500 people, plus a school with an enrollment of 867 students from the surrounding communities “Mere words cannot express the joy and happiness we feel deep down within our hearts. For we have been suffering a lot from using dirty water since my childhood, not knowing that one day, God will send us generous and kind people who will save this community from drinking dirty muddy water to clean water. Thank you very, very much.” – Kafundeezi government representative   Students perform a song in which they thank the St. Thérèse Foundation for the borehole (well), which provides clean water for drinking, cooking, washing, bathing, and other activities.
Completed: October 2021 Serves: 245 people Before its protection, goats, dogs, livestock, and snakes would enter the spring, drinking directly from it and leaving their waste.  Completed: September 2021 Serves: 2,000 people “Apart from saving our children, especially those attending Kanonko Parents Primary School, and women from the long walk of 4.5 kilometers looking for water, you have also saved the entire community and the neighboring villages to use clean and safe water. So, in addition to reducing the distance for the people of Kanonko village, you have also improved our bodily wellbeing, for water is life . . . We as Kanonko community are so blessed to have this borehole within our midst." – Excerpt from village chairperson's speech at borehole dedication ceremony  Children collecting water from previous water source
Completed: June 2021 Serves: 420 people “This is a great chance and change in this community of ours. We have been facing difficult moments, especially when we are in school. Most of us come from poor backgrounds leading to absenteeism and poor performance as children spend most of their time looking for water and becoming sick due to the unsafe water we take.” – Elizabeth, primary school student  Elizabeth
Completed: February 2021 Serves: 350 people “The process of drawing water is difficult. The spring is open, frogs keep on jumping inside, and you can easily draw water with frogs in it.” – Belinda, a local teenager The dedication ceremony was described this way: “The community members sang songs of praise and did dances to glorify God for enabling them to have their spring protected. Happiness, thanksgiving, and appreciation were the order of the day.”  Completed: December 2020 Serves: 400 people Despite its poor water quality, Busuku Spring was one of the most reliable year-round water sources in the area, so there was little choice in using its water. Lines developed at the spring every day as people had to wait for the mud in the water to settle between their turns. Crowded conditions often led to conflict. “My dream has finally come true and we shall now have clean water.” – Rose Shangu “I am so happy that I will no longer fear slipping and falling at the spring, especially during the rainy season.” – Jacklyne, primary school student   |
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