Buseesa, Uganda
Uganda is a landlocked country in East Africa. Uganda is bordered by Kenya, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and by Tanzania. Uganda takes its name from the Buganda kingdom, which encompasses a large portion of the south of the country including the capital Kampala.
The provinces of Covington, KY, and Thousand Oaks, CA, sponsor a mission school in a rural community called Buseesa, in western Uganda.
Our chapter partnered with the Buseesa community. Buseesa is very remote with limited infrastructure. Most residents are subsistence farmers with an average daily income of $1.25. Residents must walk long distances to fetch water and then boil it. Typhoid fever, transmitted by contaminated water, is one of the leading causes of death in Uganda.
The community has asked us to support projects that improve the accessibility to water and we have successfully installed several shallow wells and associated water infrastructure. This well has reduced hours that women and children were spending to collect water for use in their homes.
We also helped to install a bio-digester at a school operated by the Sisters of Notre Dame as an alternative energy source to burning increasingly scarce wood. The digester turns animal manure into clean burning fuel powering stovetop burners in the kitchen. Operation of the bio-digestor was found to be problematic.
