My mission, and I chose to accept it...

Monday February 18th, 2008:

"Congratulations Kate! After careful deliberation, we would like to offer you the position of project coordinator for our safe water team this summer. Specifically, we'd like you to head our 'model village' project team. "

Project description as taken from http://www.ugandavillageproject.org/:
Safe Water and Sanitation:
Preventable infectious diseases ravage the communities in which we work. The UN Millennium Development Project estimates that 42% of Sub-Saharan African people do not have access to clean water, and that a child dies every 15 seconds from water-borne diseases. Safe water is not a glamorous and well-known part of global health work, but it should be! There are few better ways to make a difference in the lives of those who live in rural villages than to work towards safer water with them. Volunteers will work with our partners in safe water projects in the Iganga district.

The plan is to work with our local partner to create a 'model village' for safe water and sanitation. The team will then work intensively with the communities to help promote the chlorination product WaterGuard and solidly establish a supply chain, to learn the basic principles of social promotion programs.

As a side project, the sanitation teams may also work to reinforce messages about malaria and follow up on our bed net distribution program.
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It's official! I will be in Uganda from May 23 - July 30, 2008, working with a team of volunteers on UVP's Safe Water and Sanitation project. We will be located in southern Uganda in the district of Iganga. More specifically, my team will be living in the extremely rural village of Kalalu, where apparently the current water source is a swamp...

Since deciding to be part of this program, I've gotten a lot of, "But what exactly will you be doing?" I recently received a document of team objectives, which I have copied below to answer those questions....

1. BASELINE SURVEY: We will be developing and carrying out a baseline survey to gather data depicting the prevalence of WaterGuard usage in the home, the presence of sanitation facilities in and around the home and water sources, and any other related information, such as the rate of illnesses caused by waterborne diseases. The results will be shared with Population Services International (PSI), the distributors of WaterGuard which was developed by the CDC, to help them develop their strategy for ensuring safe water options in rural communities.

2. INTENSIVE SENSITIZATION: Intensively promote WaterGuard and ensure there is a supply available in one local area. This can be done by working with PSI and community partners, and mobilizing for meetings and sensitizations, focusing on WaterGuard and its proper use, the Safe Water System, which involves ensuring safe water from the source to storage in the home, and the importance of different sanitation facilities in and around the home.

3. SUPPLY CHAIN: Set-up a simple structure for supplying WaterGuard after your team leaves Kalalu.

4. WELL CONSTRUCTION: Funding has been received to construct several shallow wells in Kalalu this summer. This must be overseen.

5. REPORT OF FINDINGS: Produce a report that summarizes the activities during the summer project for the UVP board and for future safe water teams. This report should also include a completed report of how project money was spent using our financial template.

Sounds like this summer we will be busy....