Merikit Uganda Rotary Global Grant – Water!

Kathy Napier, member of the Rotary Club of Warren County, presented “Uganda 2019” a voyage to Africa with George Karnes, Ron Napier, Beth Waller, Liz Gibbs, and other Rotary International Rotarians. The main purpose of the trip was to attend the dedication of the Sam F. Owori Memorial Wash Global Grant Project.

The idea of a project in Uganda began at the Governor’s training, where 30 rising district governors from Zone 29 and 30 met and decided on a project to honor the incoming Rotary International President, Sam Owori, who was from Uganda. Sam, who had been elected to serve as president of Rotary International in 2018-19, would have been the second African Rotary member, and the first Ugandan, to hold that office. The idea was to construct a well for a school in Uganda to honor Sam. And George, as the incoming District Governor for District 7570, was put in charge of obtaining a global grant for this purpose. Sam was thrilled at the idea of the project.

Unfortunately, after surgery, Sam died, and it looked like the project would pass with him. There was a groundswell of support for a project in Uganda to honor Sam’s memory and the proposed project in Merikit. George expanded plans for the original project to bring a much larger water system to Merikit, and enlisted the aid of other Rotary Districts and Clubs, to support the larger project. As a result, more than $228,000 was raised from 42 Rotary Districts and 22 Rotary Clubs. Rotary International partnered with the Clean The World organization, and the project became the Sam F. Owori Memorial Wash Global Grant Project.

Merikit, the remote village where Sam had grown up, is a community of 4,000 people which grows to 10,000 during the day. The grant provides a solar-powered pump water system for more than 3,000 homes and the local maternity ward. On one of his visits to the village with Walter Hughes George found that the local medical clinic required the presentation of 100 liters of water during the dry season before they would allow pregnant women to enter the facility and have their babies. As a result, many babies were born on the steps of the clinic.

Also sanitation was a problem, with the lack of latrines. This all would change as a result of the grant: the new system pumps water into the huge steel water tank, which holds more than one hundred thousand liters of water. The project also provides five schools in the area with disposable toilets, and the village received two micro flush toilets. The maternity ward now has a hot shower for its patients. No longer would pregnant women deliver their babies on the steps.

The grant also provided for the training of forty-eight toilet makers, giving these craftsmen a source of income. Thirty school teachers and ten health workers have been trained as trainers, in order to improve on sanitation, health, and menstrual hygiene for girls. A water users committee has been trained and equipped to maintain, sustain, and manage the distribution system.

On October 26, 2019, a day-long ceremony was held to officially transfer the project to the villagers, with Sam’s wife Nora in attendance, along with Kathy, Ron, and George, Rotary Club members from Kampala, and Ugandan governmental officials. It was a joyous occasion and a lot of fun, culminating with everyone dancing. Kathy said that she was struck by the friendliness of all the people in Uganda. Known as “the Pearl of Africa,” Uganda is a developing country with a bright future. After presenting a brief history of the country, she noted a striking statistic about Uganda: the media age in Uganda is 16.7. Forty-six percent of the population is 14 or under; and another twenty-one percent is aged 15 to 24.

During the trip they also visited the Light Up Front Royal Academy, a school started by Beth Waller in December 2017 in the remote village of Bunyade,Uganda. It provides educational facilities for the children of the village. The school, which has an excellent reputation, now serves more than 200 children, and Beth is actively working to improve the school.

Message from Beth: “I’m so honored to be a part of the Rotary family and to witness the amazing work they are doing in Uganda, all over the world and in my own community. I’m looking forward to an even brighter future of global impact work now that I am a Rotarian and connected with fantastic like-minded individuals working together to make more of a difference on our planet.”

Finally, after the celebration, they toured the Murchison Falls National Park, where the animals were more than happy to greet and perform for visiting Rotarians.

Watch this video of the entire presentation:

Watch this video by Beth Waller and George Karnes:

For more information, please go to www.warrencountyrotary.org.

This story is a collaborative effort by Hank Ecton & Jennifer Avery.
Photo credit: Kathy Napier (picture quote by Jenspiration)

Ugandans gift local businessman with goat for providing fresh water to African village