Busingye

310 people

Project Completed

“Almost all these children are now back at school.” - William

Busingye, Uganda, Africa

GPS: 1.0703, 31.4284
  • Story
  • Plan
  • FAQ's

 

Clean Water, New Life: William’s Story

 

At the new, rehabilitated water well in Busingye village, people laugh and chat as they wait their turn in line. A sense of unity, peace, and opportunity hangs in the air. They know they’ll be able to fill their water containers with safe water easily and quickly.

This transformation, William Rukyereza said, is like a dream come true.

Before partnering with local Lifewater staff, William used to travel many miles on a bicycle to pay for clean water from a village in another sub-county. It wasn’t safe to get water from his own community.

The overcrowding at the only well caused long lines, sometimes in the hundreds. Families waited in line as early as 2 a.m., and fights broke out every day.

“No one has fought anyone since the well was rehabilitated,” William said. “The water flow is very good, which means people don’t spend a long time there pumping water.”

William is a farmer. Before Busingye village got safe water, he struggled to earn a living.

“We no longer lose productive time spending many hours waiting at the well,” he said. “We are healthier now so we can work harder; our profits from farming have increased.”

For the first time, William and his neighbors can save money to invest in their families futures. Ever the community advocate, William has big plans for Busingye village.

“I would like to organize our community to engage in corporate savings so we can do much more than we could otherwise,” William said. “The ground is fertile for imaginative initiatives.”

William’s wife, Jovanis, said one of the greatest improvements in her community is the number of children going to school. Before, children were among most of the people waiting in line at the crowded well or walking to a nearby pond to draw water. They couldn’t go to school regularly.

“Almost all these children are now back at school, attending consistently because they are healthy and their parents can afford their education,” Jovanis said.

This has inspired the couple and given them hope for the future of Busingye village.

“We shall not only fight illiteracy but invest in the future progress of our community,” William said.

With safe water and sanitation practices, families like William’s are transformed. You can be a part of a transformation story. Sponsor a village water project today, and follow along to see your impact.


 

Life in Busingye: William’s Story

September 2018

 

William, his wife, and their four-year-old grandson, Kington, farm corn, cassava, and beans in Busingye village. William used to be a pastor when he was younger, and he and his wife recently took their grandson in.

William adores his grandson and wife and travels many miles on a bicycle to pay for clean water from a village in another sub-county. It isn’t safe to get water from his own village. Although the community has a well, it’s overcrowded, causing families to wait in line starting as early as 2 a.m., and fights break out every day.

“On some days, the people in line are as many as 800,” he said. “Fights break out when those who have waited for their turn for six hours are made to wait for longer by those who jump the queue.”

Their one water source serves four villages, and the closest pond makes everyone ill. Often, it is women and children who drink from the pond.

“I cannot afford to use unsafe water that causes us sickness so I travel [for water],” he said. “I can’t manage the fights in our local borehole because I’m weak and would get beaten by young and more energetic men there who don’t respect my age.”

Despite acknowledging the dangers of waiting in line for the village well, William doesn’t blame anyone. In his understanding, they are fighting for their own survival. He believes a new, clean water source would bring greater unity and brotherly love to his community.

You can help William’s family and all of Busingye village today. Your gift will provide health training for each household, plus a safe water source near their village.

Sponsor Busingye village today.

Busingye is in a very remote region of Uganda

View Interactive Map

This village is on its way to becoming a Healthy Village. The process takes approximately 24 months from start to finish. You can follow along with the progress below.

Here’s the Plan for Busingye:

ready

Project Ready

Villages are carefully selected by Lifewater staff and wait for program work to begin in their area.

CLTS

In Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS), each village goes through exercises that reveal how their current practices are making them sick, such as identifying all the places where feces are contaminating their environment. This important step equips communities to be knowledgeable about their health and willing to make changes.

clts
healthy-homes-registered

Healthy Homes Registered

A home is certified healthy when a family has adopted five healthy habits: washing hands with soap and water, storing and using water safely, building and using a bathroom with a roof and door, using a drying rack to keep dishes off the ground, and keeping the area around the home safe and clean.

ODF

When each household builds and uses their own functioning restroom, a community earns an “Open Defecation Free” (ODF) certification. Each country has their own processes and celebration for ODF villages, and it’s a huge accomplishment towards improved health for everyone.

odf
wc_schoolmc_formed

Water Committee Selected

Busingye has selected water committee members to manage the safe village water source. Forming a water committee is a key step toward establishing a safe water source in a village. Committees are made up of local men and women who manage the well and collect fees, ensuring the community’s investment lasts for generations to come.

Construction Started

Work is officially underway to build a new water source for Busingye village. Our local teams are using technology appropriate to the region and geography to ensure the new water source is sustainable.

construction_start
construction_complete

Village Has Safe Water Source

The new safe water source is now complete!

Clean, safe water transforms a village. Everyone gathers to celebrate, thanking God for the miracle in their community. 

Healthy Village

Great news! Busingye is now a certified Healthy Village. That means the safe water source is complete and more than 90% of the community’s homes are healthy. That is a new future for 310 children and families.

healthy_village_achieved

Water Project FAQs

What is included in the cost of a water project?

When you sponsor a water project, you are helping bring lasting change. Your gift provides:

  • House-to-house hygiene and sanitation education
  • Custom engineered water source
  • Construction of a safe water source
  • Community engagement by Lifewater field staff to ensure change lasts

Lifewater also provides:

  • Monitoring and evaluation of the project with real-time updates to donors
  • Local church partnerships that equip the church to be the hands and feet of Jesus
  • Five-year water source maintenance and sustainability (funded by beneficiary communities on a volunteer basis)
Is this a real village? Am I impacting this actual village?

Yes! The village you are helping is a real village. All families photographed or shared from the project page have given their permission to have their information shared with you.

Can I visit programs and/or my sponsored water project?

Lifewater has local staff that live and serve among the communities and schools where Lifewater works. Our staff know the language and the culture and are best equipped to serve communities. Because we seek to ensure sustainable water projects and community buy in, we do not allow donors to visit the projects they sponsor. However, we do commit to sending real-time updates, photos, and stories from the projects themselves.

Where does Lifewater work?

With more than 40 years’ experience, LIfewater is the longest-running Christian clean water charity in North America. Over those 40 years, Lifewater has worked in more than 45 different countries. Currently, our work is focused in Sub-Saharan Africa (Ethiopia, Uganda, and Tanzania) and Southeast Asia (Cambodia).

Why these countries and regions?

Lifewater identifies countries and regions that are unreached and underserved with basic water access and sanitation, which means we focus on areas where other organizations are not serving. 

Although great strides have been made in the past 20 years to solve the global water crisis, remote and rural populations still remain unreached with adequate water and sanitation. These distant regions are difficult and often costly for governments and NGOs to serve well. Many of these communities feel as though they have been forgotten.

Can I request a water project in a specific country?

Currently, Lifewater has programs in Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania, and Cambodia. You can go to lifewater.org/projects to select a specific water project to help. Because our programs are regionalized and made in partnership with the local governments, we are not able to take requests for specific water projects outside of our existing programs.

What percent of funds go towards programs?

Lifewater budgets 80% of expenditures for programs. The remaining 20% is split between administrative/management and fundraising expenses. This ratio is best in class for nonprofits and is why Lifewater has received the highest rating from Charity Navigator.

Administrative/management expenses are used to ensure that we are effective in managing the funds entrusted to us and include the following types of expenses: accounting personnel, leadership time, professional development of staff, external auditors, legal counsel, government registration expenses in every U.S. state, credit card fees for processing donations, bank fees, database maintenance, and office expenses.

Fundraising expenses generate the income needed to do the work that we set out to do. These include the cost of direct mail appeals and communication, marketing projects, donor relations personnel, and email communication systems. Last year, every dollar invested into Lifewater fundraising efforts resulted in $10 of donation for the organization. 

Is Lifewater approved/vetted by 3rd party organizations?

Over our 40 year history, Lifewater has received the highest accreditations from the most respected rating organization in the industry. Lifewater is recognized as one of the top-rated charities in the United States by independent reporting organizations, including:

  • Charity Navigator (four stars)
  • Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA)
  • Guidestar (Platinum)
  • Great Nonprofits (five star)
  • Excellence in Giving

Learn more at https://lifewater.org/top-rated-charity.

How does Lifewater integrate faith into its work?

Lifewater’s work is founded on the belief that every person is made in the image of God. It is with this conviction that we seek out the globe’s most unreached, marginalized people groups in need of safe water. 

Both nationally and internationally, 100 percent of our staff are Christians. These Christian staff help facilitate Lifewater’s Healthy Church strategy in communities. And, where there are no churches, we work with church planting partners to start new churches. 

To create Healthy Churches, Lifewater first trains church leaders in foundational theology. These leaders are equipped with the basic story of the Christian faith and the biblical mandate to love others. Leaders learn that stopping the spread of disease and caring for the vulnerable aligns with our responsibility as Christians to love our neighbor. 

Second, Lifewater ensures churches have safe bathrooms on their premises, handwashing stations, clean water nearby, and the education to promote health within their congregations. It’s imperative that churches are early adopters of healthy hygiene practices. 

Third, Lifewater encourages churches to help vulnerable households become Healthy Homes. Church leaders undergo a training to become WASH (water access, sanitation, and hygiene) advocates in their communities. These advocates are encouraged to identify widows, child-headed households, the elderly, and the disabled to help them meet the health standards of Lifewater’s programs.

What is Lifewater’s process? What does the organization do, and how does it do it?

Lifewater’s Vision of a Healthy Village strategy is a relationship-first method. This model transforms entire regions house by house, village by village, and school by school. It is among the most intensive household-level work happening in the entire developing world and is closely tracked for progress, sustainability, and overall impact.

We construct custom-engineered safe water sources and teach life-saving health and sanitation practices in local villages and schools in need.

Story

 

Clean Water, New Life: William’s Story

 

At the new, rehabilitated water well in Busingye village, people laugh and chat as they wait their turn in line. A sense of unity, peace, and opportunity hangs in the air. They know they’ll be able to fill their water containers with safe water easily and quickly.

This transformation, William Rukyereza said, is like a dream come true.

Before partnering with local Lifewater staff, William used to travel many miles on a bicycle to pay for clean water from a village in another sub-county. It wasn’t safe to get water from his own community.

The overcrowding at the only well caused long lines, sometimes in the hundreds. Families waited in line as early as 2 a.m., and fights broke out every day.

“No one has fought anyone since the well was rehabilitated,” William said. “The water flow is very good, which means people don’t spend a long time there pumping water.”

William is a farmer. Before Busingye village got safe water, he struggled to earn a living.

“We no longer lose productive time spending many hours waiting at the well,” he said. “We are healthier now so we can work harder; our profits from farming have increased.”

For the first time, William and his neighbors can save money to invest in their families futures. Ever the community advocate, William has big plans for Busingye village.

“I would like to organize our community to engage in corporate savings so we can do much more than we could otherwise,” William said. “The ground is fertile for imaginative initiatives.”

William’s wife, Jovanis, said one of the greatest improvements in her community is the number of children going to school. Before, children were among most of the people waiting in line at the crowded well or walking to a nearby pond to draw water. They couldn’t go to school regularly.

“Almost all these children are now back at school, attending consistently because they are healthy and their parents can afford their education,” Jovanis said.

This has inspired the couple and given them hope for the future of Busingye village.

“We shall not only fight illiteracy but invest in the future progress of our community,” William said.

With safe water and sanitation practices, families like William’s are transformed. You can be a part of a transformation story. Sponsor a village water project today, and follow along to see your impact.


 

Life in Busingye: William’s Story

September 2018

 

William, his wife, and their four-year-old grandson, Kington, farm corn, cassava, and beans in Busingye village. William used to be a pastor when he was younger, and he and his wife recently took their grandson in.

William adores his grandson and wife and travels many miles on a bicycle to pay for clean water from a village in another sub-county. It isn’t safe to get water from his own village. Although the community has a well, it’s overcrowded, causing families to wait in line starting as early as 2 a.m., and fights break out every day.

“On some days, the people in line are as many as 800,” he said. “Fights break out when those who have waited for their turn for six hours are made to wait for longer by those who jump the queue.”

Their one water source serves four villages, and the closest pond makes everyone ill. Often, it is women and children who drink from the pond.

“I cannot afford to use unsafe water that causes us sickness so I travel [for water],” he said. “I can’t manage the fights in our local borehole because I’m weak and would get beaten by young and more energetic men there who don’t respect my age.”

Despite acknowledging the dangers of waiting in line for the village well, William doesn’t blame anyone. In his understanding, they are fighting for their own survival. He believes a new, clean water source would bring greater unity and brotherly love to his community.

You can help William’s family and all of Busingye village today. Your gift will provide health training for each household, plus a safe water source near their village.

Sponsor Busingye village today.

Plan

Busingye is in a very remote region of Uganda

View Interactive Map

This village is on its way to becoming a Healthy Village. The process takes approximately 24 months from start to finish. You can follow along with the progress below.

Here’s the Plan for Busingye:

ready

Project Ready

Villages are carefully selected by Lifewater staff and wait for program work to begin in their area.

CLTS

In Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS), each village goes through exercises that reveal how their current practices are making them sick, such as identifying all the places where feces are contaminating their environment. This important step equips communities to be knowledgeable about their health and willing to make changes.

clts
healthy-homes-registered

Healthy Homes Registered

A home is certified healthy when a family has adopted five healthy habits: washing hands with soap and water, storing and using water safely, building and using a bathroom with a roof and door, using a drying rack to keep dishes off the ground, and keeping the area around the home safe and clean.

ODF

When each household builds and uses their own functioning restroom, a community earns an “Open Defecation Free” (ODF) certification. Each country has their own processes and celebration for ODF villages, and it’s a huge accomplishment towards improved health for everyone.

odf
wc_schoolmc_formed

Water Committee Selected

Busingye has selected water committee members to manage the safe village water source. Forming a water committee is a key step toward establishing a safe water source in a village. Committees are made up of local men and women who manage the well and collect fees, ensuring the community’s investment lasts for generations to come.

Construction Started

Work is officially underway to build a new water source for Busingye village. Our local teams are using technology appropriate to the region and geography to ensure the new water source is sustainable.

construction_start
construction_complete

Village Has Safe Water Source

The new safe water source is now complete!

Clean, safe water transforms a village. Everyone gathers to celebrate, thanking God for the miracle in their community. 

Healthy Village

Great news! Busingye is now a certified Healthy Village. That means the safe water source is complete and more than 90% of the community’s homes are healthy. That is a new future for 310 children and families.

healthy_village_achieved

FAQ's

Water Project FAQs

What is included in the cost of a water project?

When you sponsor a water project, you are helping bring lasting change. Your gift provides:

  • House-to-house hygiene and sanitation education
  • Custom engineered water source
  • Construction of a safe water source
  • Community engagement by Lifewater field staff to ensure change lasts

Lifewater also provides:

  • Monitoring and evaluation of the project with real-time updates to donors
  • Local church partnerships that equip the church to be the hands and feet of Jesus
  • Five-year water source maintenance and sustainability (funded by beneficiary communities on a volunteer basis)
Is this a real village? Am I impacting this actual village?

Yes! The village you are helping is a real village. All families photographed or shared from the project page have given their permission to have their information shared with you.

Can I visit programs and/or my sponsored water project?

Lifewater has local staff that live and serve among the communities and schools where Lifewater works. Our staff know the language and the culture and are best equipped to serve communities. Because we seek to ensure sustainable water projects and community buy in, we do not allow donors to visit the projects they sponsor. However, we do commit to sending real-time updates, photos, and stories from the projects themselves.

Where does Lifewater work?

With more than 40 years’ experience, LIfewater is the longest-running Christian clean water charity in North America. Over those 40 years, Lifewater has worked in more than 45 different countries. Currently, our work is focused in Sub-Saharan Africa (Ethiopia, Uganda, and Tanzania) and Southeast Asia (Cambodia).

Why these countries and regions?

Lifewater identifies countries and regions that are unreached and underserved with basic water access and sanitation, which means we focus on areas where other organizations are not serving. 

Although great strides have been made in the past 20 years to solve the global water crisis, remote and rural populations still remain unreached with adequate water and sanitation. These distant regions are difficult and often costly for governments and NGOs to serve well. Many of these communities feel as though they have been forgotten.

Can I request a water project in a specific country?

Currently, Lifewater has programs in Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania, and Cambodia. You can go to lifewater.org/projects to select a specific water project to help. Because our programs are regionalized and made in partnership with the local governments, we are not able to take requests for specific water projects outside of our existing programs.

What percent of funds go towards programs?

Lifewater budgets 80% of expenditures for programs. The remaining 20% is split between administrative/management and fundraising expenses. This ratio is best in class for nonprofits and is why Lifewater has received the highest rating from Charity Navigator.

Administrative/management expenses are used to ensure that we are effective in managing the funds entrusted to us and include the following types of expenses: accounting personnel, leadership time, professional development of staff, external auditors, legal counsel, government registration expenses in every U.S. state, credit card fees for processing donations, bank fees, database maintenance, and office expenses.

Fundraising expenses generate the income needed to do the work that we set out to do. These include the cost of direct mail appeals and communication, marketing projects, donor relations personnel, and email communication systems. Last year, every dollar invested into Lifewater fundraising efforts resulted in $10 of donation for the organization. 

Is Lifewater approved/vetted by 3rd party organizations?

Over our 40 year history, Lifewater has received the highest accreditations from the most respected rating organization in the industry. Lifewater is recognized as one of the top-rated charities in the United States by independent reporting organizations, including:

  • Charity Navigator (four stars)
  • Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA)
  • Guidestar (Platinum)
  • Great Nonprofits (five star)
  • Excellence in Giving

Learn more at https://lifewater.org/top-rated-charity.

How does Lifewater integrate faith into its work?

Lifewater’s work is founded on the belief that every person is made in the image of God. It is with this conviction that we seek out the globe’s most unreached, marginalized people groups in need of safe water. 

Both nationally and internationally, 100 percent of our staff are Christians. These Christian staff help facilitate Lifewater’s Healthy Church strategy in communities. And, where there are no churches, we work with church planting partners to start new churches. 

To create Healthy Churches, Lifewater first trains church leaders in foundational theology. These leaders are equipped with the basic story of the Christian faith and the biblical mandate to love others. Leaders learn that stopping the spread of disease and caring for the vulnerable aligns with our responsibility as Christians to love our neighbor. 

Second, Lifewater ensures churches have safe bathrooms on their premises, handwashing stations, clean water nearby, and the education to promote health within their congregations. It’s imperative that churches are early adopters of healthy hygiene practices. 

Third, Lifewater encourages churches to help vulnerable households become Healthy Homes. Church leaders undergo a training to become WASH (water access, sanitation, and hygiene) advocates in their communities. These advocates are encouraged to identify widows, child-headed households, the elderly, and the disabled to help them meet the health standards of Lifewater’s programs.

What is Lifewater’s process? What does the organization do, and how does it do it?

Lifewater’s Vision of a Healthy Village strategy is a relationship-first method. This model transforms entire regions house by house, village by village, and school by school. It is among the most intensive household-level work happening in the entire developing world and is closely tracked for progress, sustainability, and overall impact.

We construct custom-engineered safe water sources and teach life-saving health and sanitation practices in local villages and schools in need.

Your gift reflects your trust in Lifewater International. We commit to honor your generosity by using your gift to help further the mission and vision of Lifewater International. Your donation is used by Lifewater International according to the project objectives to provide safe drinking water and improved sanitation and hygiene within the specified program area. Lifewater International is a charitable organization as described in 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, registered in the United States. All donations are tax deductible to the full extent allowed by law.

Donations are non-refundable. Lifewater International will honor a donor’s request for any pre-approved program or project whenever possible. In rare occasions where this is not possible, gifts will be used where needed, in accordance with the organization’s charitable purpose. In accordance with this policy, donor’s explicitly release Lifewater International from further restriction on such funds.