Water

Last Sunday was World Water Day and there has been a lot of information in the newspapers and on social media during the last week. The theme this year was Water and Sustainable Development.

Water and sanitation is included in the MDG (Millennium Development Goals) and there is a specific goal in the proposed post 2015 Sustainable Development Goals, which are currently being discussed. The proposed goal number 6 is to 'Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all'.

In 2010 the UN declared that access to safe water and sanitation was a basic human right. But the truth is that the provision is far from universal, especially in Sub Saharan Africa. An article by UWASNET (Uganda Water And Sanitation NGO Network) in the paper this week put the number of people in Uganda without proper sanitation facilities at 3.5 million.

Drinking unsafe water increases the risk of diarrhoea, which is especially dangerous for the under 5s. There is currently a typhoid outbreak in Uganda, especially in some areas of Kampala and a small scale cholera outbreak in Kasese. These are probably at least partly due to unsafe water use from contaminated pools and streams.

As I travel around Uganda I see many people, especially children and women collecting water from boreholes and carrying it along the road in jerrycans on their heads.

I have also seen and heard village people saying that their borehole has broken and they are now collecting water from the river or stream again. Not surprisingly the incidence of disease increases. No one fixes the borehole due to lack of funds and lack of expertise and eventually it gets polluted with soil or rubbish. Where village committees take responsibility for the maintenance of the borehole and everyone contributes a small amount towards this then the borehole water remains available for the village.

Uganda isn't short of water, there are so many lakes, Lake Victoria, Albert, Edward and Kyoga to name just the largest ones. The river Nile flows from Lake Victoria via Lake Kyoga and the Murchison Falls to Lake Albert and then north into South Sudan. What is missing is the water treatment and distribution facilities.

 Source of the Nile at Jinja

 Murchison Falls from the River Nile

The Beautiful Lake Bunyonyi

It brings to mind the quote from the Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Coleridge - 'Water, water everywhere nor any drop to drink'!

Thinking Ahead

As I rapidly approach my last 6 months in Uganda I'm starting to think seriously about how to create some sustainability for the work I've been doing and how to leave a legacy from my time here. There will be no replacement person to continue the work I've been doing due to lack of funding. This means that I need to pass on support for the organisations I've been working with to a colleague, who already has plenty of work.

What can I do to help? I'm starting to look at policies, fact sheets, training courses and other resources to leave behind. What is being used in other countries that could be adapted for Uganda? Can what I create also be used in other countries with a little adaptation?

What are we going to do next? Certainly I have gained skills in working with multiple organisations and different cultures. I've gained skills I never expected to need, like riding on a boda boda, using long drop toilets, price negotiation and making do with much less than we are used to in the UK. We decided during the Christmas break back in the UK that living and working abroad long term was not for us but perhaps short term contracts in different places can make use of the skills and experience I now have.

St Patrick's Day Ball

Yesterday was our first and probably only opportunity in the two year placement to dress up and head out to a smart evening event. It was the Irish Society in Uganda annual St Patrick's Day Gala Ball.

It was held in the ballroom at the Sheraton hotel, which looked the part with green lights and beautifully dressed tables

There was a 5 course meal, including a lovely cheese board, always popular in Kampala, lots of wine, Guinness and Irish whiskey and a live band. It's the main event of the year for the Irish community in Kampala and was supported by the Irish Ambassador and invited guests including the British High Commissioner. The band was great, swapping effortlessly between supporting children singing, classic Irish music and cover versions of the popular songs that always get people up dancing.

It ran to Ugandan time with the main course served at 10.10, but otherwise was a lovely evening and a good chance to get to know some of the Irish community in Uganda. Working with an Irish NGO it was a must do event during my placement.

Today is Mother's Day in the UK so we followed the tradition we set last year and went to Cafe Roma for Sunday lunch.

All together a wonderful weekend.

International Women's Day

Today, 8th March, is International Women's Day. It's a public holiday in Uganda but as today is a Sunday then offices are closed anyway. Unlike some other countries Uganda doesn't declare the Monday as a public holiday if the normal date falls on a weekend. 

I found a website for International Women's Day www.internationalwomensday.com and a logo.

(They ask that if you include the logo in a blog you put the link to the website behind the logo, but I'm afraid I'm not that clever so the link and logo are separate!)

The website gives some interesting information about the origins of International Women's Day and details about events to celebrate the day around the world. There are 27 countries where the day is a public holiday, although in some of them it is a holiday for women only, which seems strange. 

There has been an International Women's Day since the days of the Suffragette movement campaigning for the right for women to vote. Women's rights have come a long way since then and there are women MPs and leaders all around the world. Uganda has a seat for a women MP for each district in parliament and currently has a higher percentage of women MPs than the UK. 

But daily life as a women can still be very hard, particularly in rural Uganda. The organisation I work with has a national programme to try and reduce gender based violence through awareness raising and education. But there is a long way to go, in the West Nile region domestic violence is not yet even seen as a problem by local women, it is so common and just accepted as 'normal'. 

Maternal and infant deaths in childbirth are still far to high, despite the millennium goal. Mothers have to walk huge distances to the local health centres to deliver their babies, with the result that many of them choose to manage at home without the help of a trained midwife. Looking through the International Women's day website I found a link to an article in the Guardian today about maternal health care in Uganda.   http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2015/mar/08/international-womens-day-fight-better-maternal-health-care-uganda

But small steps are being taken and there is an awareness of International Women's Day. We went out to the supermarket this morning in the Lugogo Mall and the (male) security guard on the entrance greeted us cheerfully and said to Glen 'You know today is women's day in Uganda, you cook for your wife!' 

The theme for 2015 is 'Make it Happen' We should celebrate the achievements of women while calling for greater equality. 

1000 km, 100 people, 3 days and a Pick Up!

On Tuesday I attended the Northern Uganda Land Platform (NULP) meeting in Arua, which is in the North West corner of Uganda, very close to the DRC border. In fact the BBC weather app thinks it is in DRC! Arua is around 500km from Kampala and I needed to drop into the Agricultural College on the way. This entailed an early start with a pick up at 6.15 on Monday morning. We travelled in a Hilux Pick Up, which was full with 4 of us plus driver. We collected the final passenger at a cafe in the centre of town complete with very welcome take away coffees!

Despite the early start I arrived at the college at 3.30. After a quick lunch and change I managed an hour and a half with the accountant there to go through the reconciliation at the end of December, the calculation of tax etc. on extra pay and expenditure on the grant to date in the final period.

Tuesday was a second early start, 6.30 this time, as I stayed at the college overnight and was travelling to the meeting with their attendees. The NULP meetings are always interesting and I appreciate the opportunity to learn more about the land issues that are so important for the ultimate beneficiaries of the programme. The platform is becoming very popular with nearly 100 attendees this time from all over the Northern areas of Uganda.

Oil has been discovered in a band of land in the west of Uganda, through the West Nile region and along the side of Lake Albert. While anticipating a welcome rise in wealth in the country, the challenge is to ensure all benefit from the discovery and the people living in the region are not worse off as a result. We debated the issues around resettlement or compensation payments for those directly affected. Who owns the land, do they have title to prove ownership, what about the long term occupier who has no proof of ownership? If compensation is paid will it be used to resettle the family or enable the head of the household (usually male) to buy a boda boda or take another wife? While there are no easy answers it is good that the issues are being aired, especially as the meeting included representatives of local and national government and an oil company.

A very interesting session focussed on the confusion caused by a disconnect between laws, the national land policy and cultural norms where a child is born outside of marriage. With no clear consensus it is often the pregnant girl who is having to find a way to care for the baby when in the past, once the father was known, the 2 families would agree on a support package.

With a long debate over the wording of a voluntary code of conduct, the closing comments by a local politician and the group photo, it was 6.45 before the day concluded. I had heard of a wonderful fabric market in Arua from a previous volunteer based there so we were keen to go but by the time we arrived it was after 7 and sadly it had closed.

Wednesday was yet another pre dawn awaking for breakfast at 7 and departure at 7.30.

Sunrise from my hotel balcony!

It was a slightly more leisurely drive back to Kampala with time to stop at a market by the roadside to buy grinding stones to take back and simsim and water for the journey. 

The large flat stones have a smaller round stone with smooth edge to go on top. These are used to grind simsim or ground nuts (peanuts) into powder to make into posho or sauces. The grinding is done by hand and it sounds like very hard work!

I arrived back at the flat a little after 6.30 to find Ann and David back from their adventures in the South West. They had enjoyed their trip to the gorillas and to Lake Mburo and had lots of lovely photos. 

Thursday was their last day in Uganda so I arranged to leave work at lunchtime, this necessitated another early start in order to complete what had to be done! We had a quick lunch in the flat then drove down to the botanical gardens in Entebbe for a look around. We were lucky to see a large family of the black and white colobus monkeys in the trees. We finished the day with a pizza on the beach before dropping them off for their flight at Entebbe Airport. 

It has been lovely to have the company of friends from Poppleton for nearly 3 weeks and we've really enjoyed showing them around Uganda and also having a holiday ourselves. 

This is Uganda

For the past 2 weeks we have had some very good friends from York staying with us. It has been a pleasure for us to introduce them to Uganda.

We spent the first week in Kampala and around. Our first day was the standard Smith introduction to Kampala. This involves a walk up the hill by the apartment to catch a matatu into the centre. Then a walk through the organised chaos of downtown Kampala followed by a walk up the hill into the leafy area north of Kampala / Jinja road. We had coffee and cake in the Amagara Bistro then walked back down via the Independence monument to the taxi park for the Matatu back to the apartment.

I was at work from Tuesday to Friday but our guests enjoyed a trip to Jinja with some kayaking and a boda tour of Kampala. We met with the other volunteers for a meal on Friday evening.

Last week we headed out in our little RAV4 to see some animals and scenery. We were not disappointed.

Two colourful birds

 There is a lion hiding behind the tree!

Here a Nile crocodile is hiding! 

Murchison Falls from the Nile

Murchison Falls looking from the top of the falls

The beautiful Lake Nyinambuga near Fort Portal. The lake is featured on the 20,000 Ugandan Shilling note. 

The Rwenzori mountains in the mist

On Friday after a few hiccups with the park entrance paperwork (TIU!) we went Chimpanzee trekking in Kyambura Gorge. This is a real piece of tropical rainforest with wild hippos as well as many other monkeys and of course the Chimps. We only walked for around an hour but we were clambering up slippy mud slopes hanging onto tree roots so were glad to emerge back onto the mud track. Our trusty RAV4 and expert driver, Glen, managed to slither back to the entrance gate. 

A Chimpanzee in the treetops

All in all an excellent trip and another opportunity to appreciate the beauty of Uganda. Our friends are continuing into the south west to trek the Mountain Gorillas Uganda is famous for. I'm back at work tomorrow with a trip up to Arua in the far north west. 

An Update

So, I've been back in Uganda for more than a month! Everyone said the second half of my placement would fly past and the last month certainly has. The trip to the UK over Christmas put everything in perspective and helped me to decide that I do want to go home at the end of the 2 year placement. However, I think that I would like to do shorter term consultancy type placements overseas in the future. I would particularly like to work in Asia or South America, or both!

I've been travelling again over the past 2 weeks. I spent 2 days in Soroti, 2 in Lira and 2 in Gulu. It reached 42 degrees one afternoon in Soroti! Very hard to concentrate on figures in that heat. The town looked completely different, very dry.

 Soroti in late January

 Soroti in September

I've travelled with colleagues on both occasions and it's been lovely to sit and chat out in the cooler air in the evenings. While in Lira we joined up with the Lira based volunteers and had a wonderful shared Indian meal.

In Gulu we brought all of the partner organisations together for a partner meeting as we move towards the end of the current programme. We talked about future plans for the work and I introduced a draft policy on costs I've been working on. We haven't been successful in recent funding bids partly because the cost per beneficiary has been too high as we've been working through multiple partner organisations so have had each partner's administration costs to factor in. We're looking at a policy to cap indirect costs with a consequent increase in direct costs and therefore an increase in the number of beneficiaries who can be reached.

We are also looking at the payment of allowances, a structure which is completely different to what is possible in the UK. At the meeting I introduced the draft policy and the partners considered the good and bad points in groups. They then looked again at the policy from different viewpoints, beneficiary, donor etc. and prepared a short role play to illustrate. These were great fun, highly amusing but also a real eye opener for me on the work they are doing and the challenges they face.

I've been reviewing my workplan for the final 8 months of my placement with the Country Management team. I'm going to start my handover early to allow for joint visits with the person who will be taking over my work on the Livelihoods programme. I will also visit partners on the Gender and Governance programmes with him. I'm looking forward to learning more about these programmes and meeting the people involved. Some of these were at the Integrating Programme and Finance training in November so it will be good to meet up again.

I will also be looking at other options to 'add value' and hopefully leave a legacy of my time here. Part of that will be to discuss the proposed policy more widely, to continue to provide training and to share my learning. Some of the partners would like to implement a version of a Full Cost Recovery system so I hope this will also be possible.

As well as being busy at work we have also enjoyed several meals out with other volunteers. We've discovered a small local café called the York Bar! We asked how it came to be called the York Bar and apparently it is named after an area in Dubai! I think we'll be visiting again with some pictures of real York Bars! Finally we also made another visit to the Ssezibwa Falls with a work colleague on the bank holiday Monday at the end of January.

We went on one of the very few rainy days we've had since returning but we didn't mind as the rain was very refreshing and it kept the temperature down to a more pleasant level for walking around. We took a shared picnic and had a wonderful feast of pate, cheese, guacamole, salad and bread. This was followed by an invitation to another volunteer's flat for dinner on our way back. Altogether a lovely day.

Today we have had thunder and rain. The parched ground in Kampala is soaking it up gratefully. Friends from York are currently in the skies above the Mediterranean. We are looking forward to seeing them at Entebbe airport later tonight and showing them around Kampala this week and Uganda next.