Kali, Kali is what I hear, or "How it really works in Uganda"

Kali Kali. It's okay, everything is going to be fine.

One can hear Kali Kali in waves of assurance washing through the streets of Kampala.

One also hears a multitude of ring tones singing their anthem of telecom saturation. This is the land of cell phones! Many people have two, three, four phones as they capture the best rates going with their various Sim cards. Everywhere you look there are bright adverts for air time rates - Orange, AirTel, MTN...the cell phone is indispensable in Uganda.

Telecom's have also captured a niche finance sector offering micro finance options to their users. "It's a very fluid system", explained to me by Apollo Kabuye Kawoya. Apollo is the passionate Vice President of VAD (Voluntary Action for Development) and we will hear more about him in a later posting.

"Let's say you live in remote, rural Uganda. You will have no access to standard financial institutions such as a bank or credit union. However you most likely have a cell phone. Through the purchase of airtime credits with your cell provider one can use the credits like currency, to pay bills, transfer funds, and even make a purchase." As Apollo explained it, it is a means to bring basic banking services to communities where there is no existing infrastructure. In fact, even in the crowded city of Kampala, only 1% of the residents actually use traditional banking services. Having a bank account is rare. Many now use their cell phones to conduct their daily commerce.This is one example of innovation and technology improving the daily life of Ugandans.

The four development agencies that we worked with on our WaterCan work study tour are committed to sustainable, innovative, development that is community based. There is no sense in providing a well to a community if they don't have the resources to maintain the pump. Better to provide a water collection system that stores rooftop harvested water. So much of the development work that WaterCan sponsors is focused on building strong relationships in a community and "building capacity". This means that if you want to affect change in Uganda - you have to do a LOT OF CONSULTING!

Without exception, each partner group that we met with over the course of our 10 day tour, was passionate about their process. True success in development work is measured not in "wells dug" - but rather sustainable improvement. There are four basic steps to a project beginning with identifying the group to receive services.

1) Consult with all stakeholders to establish a baseline for the community. This involves everything from a physical site survey to determine where there is a clean water source, to interviewing householders to find out what the daily hygiene and sanitation practises are at home. This process can go on for a few months. Along with establishing the baseline practises and needs of the community (or school), the agency workers facilitate a number of stakeholder meetings to establish who is willing to support the project and what resources are available to support and maintain the project. (If the community proves to be unable to support the project they will not be selected to receive funds.)

2) Once the community has been identified as willing and able to implement and maintain a project, then the technical advisers come in to determine what the best technology is to meet the needs of the community. A building plan is created utilising as many of the community members to provide labour as possible. The agency will also provide a lot of training to create community based experts in masonry and water delivery as well as leadership in Health, Hygiene and Sanitation for the community.

3) The actual building, upgrading and installation of water access, hand washing stations and latrines doesn't occur until stage 3 of the project. At this point the agency workers and the community members are cooperatively working on the completion of the project.

4) Education and on-going monitoring of the project outcomes complete the cycle of the project. At this point, the WaterCan partner will most likely hand over the care and control of the WaSH project to the community leaders and the WaSH committee.

We were privileged to attend the "ribbon cutting" ceremonies to hand over the WaterCan sponsored projects to a school and to a neighbourhood - both in the slums of Kampala. The photos below are of the school public latrine, and of the family who will be the landlords of the new public latrine in the Kampala slums.

The moment when the orange ribbon is cut to inaugurate the WaterCan latrine.

Proud members of the Health Club

Collecting safe water at a WaterCan water kiosk

The mother (holding water bottle) and community leader, along with the children. This family worked with KDF to have their land used for the construction of a WaterCan public latrine. We were there for the official ribbon cutting to hand the latrine over to the community.

WaterCan has identified four NGO partners in Uganda - VAD (Voluntary Action for Development), JESE, (Joint Effort to Save the Environment), CIDI (Community Integrated Development Initiatives) and KDF (Kyakulumbye Development Foundation). These four agencies have all been recognised for their best practises by various governing bodies of NGO work. After spending time in the field with each group - one cannot help but have a deep and abiding respect, if not outright awe, for the work that these groups are doing to affect improvement in the lives of their fellow Ugandans.

Whether the work is in the remotest village, or the heart of the sweltering Kampala slums, every project we witnessed was the successful outcome of a professional, compassionate intervention. Long Live WaterCan!