Intern Dispatch: Namufuma

Water, by Joseph, James, Zoe, Lee, and Ashy

It’s raining today. Water is falling from the clouds in thin sheets, parting languidly before a cool breeze carrying freshly wet dust, thrumming against our roof of corrugated sheet metal, echoing through our village house like a symphony. The rain pools, highlighting the imperfections in our dirt yard made by bare feet and bicycle tires, seeping through the mud before being greedily snatched away by the local flora. The occasional villager strolls by, rice sack raised overhead to protect themselves from water eager to soak them, but the majority of the community takes shelter during the storm.

Take a moment to consider all of your daily tasks that require water. My list includes bathing, drinking, cooking, laundry, washing dishes, washing floors, and washing hands. Imagine having to carry the water required for those basic activities for every member of your family. There are days when we use over 10 jerrycans full of water for 5 people (typically on laundry days). Water is a fundamental need for all people.

In the United States, water is a readily available resource. It’s a simple matter of turning a faucet and fresh, clean, safe water is piped directly where you need it. In the villages, collecting water is time-consuming daily workout routine. Twenty liter jerrycans must be carried to a borehole and pumped by hand. The freshly filled jerrycans are then carried back to the house. Some community members use bicycles, women will balance the cans on their head, and some simply walk. Even at this stage, the water isn’t safe to drink and has to be boiled or purified with Waterguard chlorine tablets. Water in the villages is a precious commodity. Namufuma is particularly limited in its options for safe water. They have only one public borehole in the village, which is nearly at the end of its usable lifespan and breaks down, leaving the community without a safe accessible water source. When UVP announced the construction of a new shallow well in Namufuma, excitement in the village began to build.

Celebrating the new community-constructed shallow well

The process of constructing the shallow well was a collaborative effort between the community and UVP. The community supplied the labor to dig the well and bricks to line the inside. UVP supplied the pumping equipment, mason, and engineer to finish and install the well. The actual construction of the well was a series of escalating processes, concluding with the borehole commissioning ceremony. Each step in the construction process attracted a larger audience than the last. People worked to dig the initial hole for the well. When the mason laid the bricks in the open well, people watched with interest. When the hardware was installed, children flocked to play in the water, splashing crazily in a game of king of the well. When the shallow well commissioning ceremony began, half the village appeared.

The shallow well commissioning ceremony was a celebration in the form of speeches, dance, food, and one unlucky chicken. We interns reviewed the safe water chain with the community. UVP staff began talking about the new water source before it began to rain. The newfound waterfall did not hinder the village celebrations, and the speeches concluded amidst shouts of AI-YI-YI-YI-YIII! We were all served large plates of local food, receiving more than a few laughs at our attempts to scoop rice with our fingers (mostly from our loving Ugandan intern team members). The community brought a set of drums and waves of song and dance broke out. The enthusiasm spread through all the interns. We all joined in the dancing and Joseph demonstrated his skill with a drum.

The construction of the shallow well marks our final large event with the community as interns. It is a very physical reminder of UVPs work in the village. We’re all saying our goodbyes this week; to our hardworking Village Health Teams (VHTs), our lovely and welcoming villages, our newfound friends and fellow interns, and all the awesome people at UVP who work tirelessly throughout the year to ensure this internship is a success. Thanks you guys!

Ensuring Safe Access to Water

Patrick Bakulambe 68, is a resident of Kazigo A village, one of UVP’s newly launched Healthy Villages. Bakulambe took some time out of his garden to take us around the village showing us the places where his family gets water for domestic use.

Kazigo A is one of the many villages in Iganga district that falls below 60 % access to safe water. Though they have 3 government bore holes and one shallow well sunk by the Red Cross, the plush green vastness of the village keeps the east side secluded from amenities. They walk for over a kilometer to fetch water at the shallow well and two kilometres to the closest borehole. When it’s too tiring to carry the heavy jerrycans, the villagers from the east side of Kazigo A are forced to get water from open wells that surround their homes.

A well in the east part of the village will allow 80 households, that is a population of about 500-600 people to have access to safe water. UVP is currently working in Kazigo A to increase their sanitation levels, with increased sanitation levels (i.e. increased latrine coverage, tippy taps, plate stands and trash pits), infectious diseases can be prevented. In the future, we hope to provide the north side of the village with a UVP shallow well ensuring they have safe access to water.

Stories from the Field: Borehole Improvement Day

By Lauren Smith 


Friday morning kicked off bright and early with the first Kazigo B borehole improvement day.  Approaching the borehole, shovels, pick-axes, hammer, and sunscreen in hand, we were pleasantly surprised to find the caretaker there and ready for action.  First task: dig trenches to drain the nasty puddle at the end of the borehole and clear away the brush.  Armed with enthusiasm and total confidence in our tool wielding abilities, all four of us mzungu ladies stepped up to the borehole for the first swing.  Shovel digging skills, Gloria and Emily, check.  Hoe swinging skills…well, Lauren found those could use some work.  Turns out that while the caretaker (who is most likely twice our age) could effortlessly dig a trench in a few graceful strokes, us mzungus were in need of some serious practice.  After a few amusing swings, resulting in laughter and raised eyebrows from the Ugandans present, the Ugandans took over trench digging duty.  But, while we may be in need of some lessons in the art of swinging a hoe, we can collect and place rocks like pros, shovel and swing a machete with the best of them.  SP took on fence building, and Dan played paparazzi, documenting the event with four cameras dangling from his arms at a time.  We had a great turnout. Three of our VHTs came to help, and in total, about 15 community members participated in the improvement day.  In a few short hours we’d successfully transformed a dirty and overgrown borehole into a model borehole.  Trenches dug and lined with stones, brush cleared, pedestal cleaned and fence constructed, everyone was in good spirits, proud of the results, and covered in mud.  He who is the dirtiest had the most fun!

Lauren is interning in Kazigo B village this summer. 

Stories from the Field: WaterGuard and Behavior Change: The Mzungus and their strange American water

By Stephanie Ullrich

We have now been told multiple times that people in this community do not believe that we are drinking the same water as them from the borehole or shallow well. Apparently they have been observing our reusable water bottles and thought that we brought our own special water from the United States with us.

When this happened again today, Douglas- one of our Ugandan team members- ensured the woman that we were indeed drinking the same water as her, but also using WaterGuard to treat it. Waterguard is a water purification tablet used in 20L of water for 30 minutes to kill the bacteria in the water. After we fetch water from the borehole, we put one tablet into our Jerry can labeled “drinking water” and let it sit before its ready to drink or use for brushing our teeth. WaterGuard is sold locally at all village trading posts, and it’s the water purification technique that UVP promotes in the villages.

When the women insisted that the water treated with WaterGuard tasted and smelled funny, Douglas even went so far as to prove to her that there was no difference. He emptied the woman’s mug and took Andre’s water from his water bottle to pour it into her mug. After she tasted it she said she could not tell the difference between her old water and Andre’s treated water.

We anticipate that promoting WaterGuard is going to be one of the hardest challenges we face because it centers on sustained behavior change. Not only are we asking the village members to buy WaterGuard on a regular basis, we are asking them to treat water that they perceive as already ok to drink straight from the borehole. It is hard to prove to them that the water is not fit for drinking before treatment because they have been drinking it for years. We will struggle to prove to them this because no one can physically see the bacteria in the water. And we will struggle to prove to them that using WaterGuard could save them money in the long run because it clean water can prevent child diarrhea (aka advanced charges for medicine and treatment) and taking away productive work days because of sickness.

Alumni Profile: Benjamin Hans, One Acre Fund & Former UVP Intern

Benjamin Hans interned with UVP on the safe water team in summer 2009. He currently works as a Technical Associate at One Acre Fund in Rwanda. He has a BS in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research with a minor in Global Poverty and Practice from UC Berkeley.

UVP: Ben, tell us who are you.

Ben: I studied Industrial Engineering and Operations Research with a minor in Global Poverty and Practice at UC Berkeley and graduated in 2010. Through a myriad of experiences, including continued growth in college and my sojourn in Uganda through UVP, I was inspired to professionally seek opportunities to utilize the power of technology to bring tangible solutions to development challenges. Today, I work for an organization called One Acre Fund, which currently empowers 120,000+ farming families across Kenya, Rwanda, and Burundi. I work as the director of the IT department for our operations in Rwanda, and as a programmer striving to develop more powerful internal software to better serve our clients across different countries.

UVP: Tell me about your experience with Uganda Village Project. When were you involved, with what capacity? What did you do?

Ben: At UVP, I worked with the "safe water team" which had two projects: to create a safe water storage pot business that reduces water borne diseases in drinking water, and to install several chlorine dispensers, which are devices that disinfect dirty water by releasing small amounts of chlorine into buckets that are used to carry water from a well, in some rural villages. My tasks included mobilizing villages, conducting market research, and performing quality control testing on the products.

UVP: What was your biggest challenge working in Iganga? How did you deal with it?

Ben: I believe the biggest challenge for me was obtaining a humbling and sobering perspective of development. I think that a lot of young people, including myself, often romanticize the idea of "saving the world" and "helping the poor" without having a solid grasp of what it's like in reality; progress takes time and lots of sweat from lots of people.

UVP: What is your favorite memory about your time in Uganda?

Ben: My favorite memory was exploring with my buddy by biking through villages and jungles on crappy bikes, playing soccer at remote schools and climbing Pride Rock - all in a day's work.

UVP: What advice do you have for future interns?

Ben: Be humble, be thirsty, and don't forget that you are a guest. Also accept that you will change yourself more than you will change others.

UVP: How has UVP shaped your career today and what you aspire to do in the future?

Ben: If it wasn't for UVP, I don't think I would have chosen to live for a few years as a techy in E. Africa. I love it out here.

Inside the Villages: Four New Wells Commissioned

Earlier this month we formally commissioned four new wells. The first in Lubira is 27 feet deep and serves 200 households. Before the construction of this well, villagers in Lubira had been using a church well about 2km away. When that well broke, it had to be abandoned forcing people to walk even greater distances to fetch water wherever they could find it. Now Lubira has its own well. In Ibulanku there are two new wells: ‘A’ is 23 feet deep and ‘B’ is 11 feet deep, each serves 50 households. Villagers in Ibulanku are already remarking on a decrease in stomach issues there. The construction of the new well in Buyanga was the trickiest; it had to be dug twice. The ground there is sandy and the well walls collapsed. But hard core and piping strengthened the 11 ft. well and it now serves 70 households. At the commissioning UVP was presented with a bucket of mangoes and a rooster in gratitude.
Safe water is integral to overall health in the villages of Iganga District. A lack of municipal water infrastructure and dependence on contaminated water sources has resulted in severe illness and death in these communities. But by helping to construct village wells for nearly four years, UVP has helped more than 8,400 people gain access to safe water and live healthier lives.
Learn more: http://www.ugandavillageproject.org/what-we-do/safe-water/

Are clay pots safe for household use?

contributed by Sonali Palchaudhuri

Understanding the intricacies of the drinking water supply chain in rural Uganda has been an ongoing effort for Uganda Village Project. No matter how pristine the water may be when it comes from the source (and most rural sources are more like muddy puddles than pristine fountains), there are numerous opportunities for the water to be contaminated with bacteria that can kill the most vulnerable community members in villages - the children, the sick, and the elderly. Early on, we realized that frequently, safe water is contaminated through the common practice of dipping into the clay storage pots. For years now, we have been using innovative technologies to try to make the safe water chain 'humanproof' - to make it so that safe water automaticallystays safe, without requiring much behavior change or financial investment on the part of community members.

UVP has been working with local potters to produce new clay pots modified with spigots to access water safely. The pots have a small neck designed to keep even children's hands from reaching inside. These new clay pots have been going through testing to make sure we have a high quality product to provide for the local villagers, as well as to set up a strong social business with local entrepreneurs and potters. Of course, the first priority for these pots is to make sure that they improve the health of users. Thus, we wanted to make sure the clay being used did not contain any harmful contaminants that could leach into the drinking water. Samples of clay were collected from a variety of potters and tested in University of Michigan laboratories with an Environmental Scanning Electron Microscope (ESEM), to see what materials the clays were composed of. Fortunately, preliminary observations of the 11 samples suggest that they are all free of dangerous compounds, like mercury and lead. They are mostly composed of the normal materials found in clay – aluminum, oxygen, silicon, carbon – with trace amounts of titanium, iron and copper that we will continue to evaluate. We continue to look at these clay samples and determine if we should exclude any particular clay source, or be aware of any properties that would make the clay more susceptible to bacterial contamination.

Thanksgiving, the Incubator, and the Radio Station

From David Dinh in Uganda, UVP Board Member:
I have been working with a District Water Office engineering intern named Emma to carry out water sample collection and filtering/incubating the samples back at the water office. Water Quality testing turns out to be a tedious and time consuming exercise; on average, field testing starts between 11-12AM because of delays in procuring either transport or staff and ends at 5-6PM or within the recommended 6 hours after the collection of the first water sample. The membrane filtration consumes 10-15 minutes per sample. For a set of 10-12 samples and controls, it takes a total of 2 hours. After filtration, you have to sterilize new Petri plates and water sample collection bottles for the following day. On the days Emma could stay to help, I could leave shortly after 8PM.

On Wednesday, in eager anticipation of Thanksgiving in Uganda, I toiled to complete the necessary water quality preparations, recorded testing data from the previous field test, and organized logistics for field work on Thanksgiving Day. I was optimistic Emma and I would finish before 7PM the next day thus enabling me to bike back to the office with ample time to make dinner and, with high certainty, play Thanksgiving Scrabble with Mariam and Marcela!

Field work on Thursday consisted of traveling to Lambala, a well site boardering with Kamuli distict, and back to villages we missed the previous day in central and eastern Iganga district. “It’s only 6:00PM!” I said thinking I had a cornucopia of time (cornucopia being a great Scrabble word) to filter the 10 samples plus bottle water controls. Emma and I set off prepping and filtering our samples but, at the 8th sample, the power cut off. “Not a problem, there is a backup battery inside the incubator,” Emma told me but only to find that someone had switch off the outlet in the morning. The incubator switched on but the green power LED died, along with any hopes of leaving early.

More or less, I thought I had lost my right arm. Six hours of irretrievable field work, 43 liters of fuel, and all our testing reagents would go to waste if we could not find a power source for the incubator. The district was not going to allow me to go back to these sites to repeat testing. I dreaded the idea of repeating the task.

I waited 45 minutes before deciding on trying to charge the incubator at locations with a running generator. We had several generator options but they all necessitated me sleeping near the incubator to make sure the glorified $300 oven was not stolen. The initial plan was simple; rent a room at Mwana Highway Hotel and charge the incubator over night. We entered Mwana and inquired when they turn off their generators and whether we can get a room to charge the incubator to run our tests. I expected the cashier to say, “Ok, that will be 20,000 UGX and have a great night!”; instead he quoted 40,000 UGX and suspected we were carrying a biohazard cased in a blue metal box and called the manager. Before we could re-explain that we were working for the DWO and the incubator is as dangerous as a VCR, the cashier said to the manager, “Look at the box. They are trying to heat up chemicals.” After an unproductive discussion that involved blaming foreigners for causing generator outages during the summer by plugging in their laptops, we found ourselves walking to nearby gas stations with running generators. After two gas stations, however, it became embarrassingly obvious we were being rejected because no one knew what was inside the mystery container. It was better to show what was inside before explaining what was actually inside.

At this point, 2 hours elapsed since we put our filtered samples inside the incubator. I was exhausted. On our way to inquire about the hospital's generator, our last resort, I noticed the bright radio tower for Eye FM Radio, a local radio station across from Our supermarket. It never occurred to me that radio stations made more money and established a better reputations if they ran generators during power outages to continue broadcasting Ads and programs.

First line of action, we opened the case and showed the manager our Petri plates. Second, we explained the testing and emphasizing the large loss of time and effort if we did not find a power source for the incubator. I expected to get thrown out again, but the manager agreed to charging the incubator and even letting me sleeping on the floor next to it.

We plugged in the incubator and nothing happened. We tried a different extension cord and, still, nothing happened. Apocalyptic thoughts bombarded my exhausted brain. What if this glorified Easy-Bake oven is broken? How am I going to finish testing the remaining water sources? What if the DWO thinks I broke the incubator? Emma and I fiddled with different permutations of pressing buttons, trying different cords and extension cords, and different outlets until an electrician walked into the room to ask us what we were doing. Let me describe what happened again: an electrician walked into the office of an obscure radio station and offer to help two strangers bewildered to why their Easy-Bake oven was not turning on. It turned out the electrician was there before to fix a problem with the station’s radio transmitter. He inserted two prongs connected to a voltage meter into the incubator outlet and repeated with the wall outlet. Then, he explained the voltage was too low for the incubator and it is likely there is feedback mechanism inside the machine that switches off power after sensing fluctuations outside of a specific voltage range. It turned out my Easy-Bake oven is more sophisticated than what I had given it credit for.

Ran back to the office to grab the voltage stabilizer, a blanket, and a mosquito net I hung over my desk, and I set up camp on the floor of the radio station. The generator switched off at 3:30AM but the backup battery inside the incubator kicked in. Between 5:30AM and 6:30AM, the battery died but the casing that housed the Petri dishes remained hot until I took it back to the DWO in the morning. Power came back at 11AM today and I turned on the incubator to finish. While waiting for the remaining 4 hours (I thought since I switched off I would give it the maximum incubation time of 16 hours), I wrote this report, slept, and sterilized equipment and collection bottles for the last day of testing tomorrow.

Mod Pots Featured in Article

CNR student David Dinh is helping rural Ugandans to have access to safe drinking water.

"In every home in Uganda, drinking water is traditionally stored in a clay pot and culturally, there is a tremendous preference for this method of water storage. Unfortunately, water stored through this method can become quickly contaminated from repeated hand contact," Dinh writes. Because of the need for safe water storage, Dinh has helped to create improved clay pots with plastic spigots. They are "an affordable, accessible, and culturally appropriate safe water storage approach for rural Ugandan communities, " says Dinh.

Read the full article at:
http://nature.berkeley.edu/blogs/news/2009/10/cnr_student_helps_keep_water_f.php

Update 11/24 From Uganda

The well at Bhudebero and the new pump in action

Goats: Our Goats For Widows project veterinarian, Basil, went and did the training with the MURUDA goats. I propose to bring him on as Goat Project Coordinator. I think the number one thing that the Goats For Widows project needs is routine follow up. Basil will check up on both of our goat groups once a month. I think at the end of one year the widows will have a better idea of nutrition for the goats and they will also be to the point at which they can begin selling goats to pay for such things like nails, grass, and medications which we have been paying for so far. The cost would be 720,000USh per year, or about $425.00.

Wells: The pump is purchased and working!! The community was really excited about this; seeing how incredibly wet this wet season has been, it was getting very difficult to dig for them. Patrick and I are going to meet with new community within the week, I will let you all know how that goes. As for the water report I am still fighting with the DWO to get my hands on it. Last week I spent a total of 5 hours at that office just waiting. I now have Patrick also on the case.

Fistula: I met with Dr. Glyn last week. Unfortunately they had over 90 patients, and only time to do 30 repairs. Many of our women have been sent home and told to return to Kitovu for a 3 week repair camp starting Jan 11th or to return to Kamuli March 16th. Since they have been getting so many patients lately, they proposed that we not do much mobilizing for the March and Jan camps but just focus on the women we have who need repair. But then in summer 2009, they said that perhaps seeing that we have many volunteers that for that camp they will only repair UVP women. I thought this was great.

They have also asked us to help with pre-operation questions with the women. Dr. Glyn was telling me they waste a lot of time getting this info while at the hospital. Since we spend time with many of the women we bring, either on transport on the way or at the health centers during the screening, it will be easy for us to get this information. The helpful follow up that they would like is information regarding if the women are leaking, if so have they followed the post-op instructions?

Desks: I am giving WAACHA 700,000ush to go and buy wood to start building the desks for the secondary school funded by ChooseANeed. The final price is 45,000ush per desk. So we are able to make 36 desks.

2008 Summer Recap

Hello friends of UVP!

We apologize that it has been so long since our last update, but rest assured, a lot has been going on, and we can’t wait to tell you all about it! Firstly, let me introduce myself: my name is Kristen Shuken, and I am the new Program Manager for UVP. I am so happy to be working with this organization, and I really want to thank Matt for doing such an awesome job here in Uganda - setting things up for the summer teams and for me to take over.

Speaking of the summer teams, well, let me start there. This summer we had some amazing volunteers from all over the US. Arriving here early June, they took on some daunting tasks. We had four teams this year: Orphan Support, Safe Water, Healthcare, and Obstetric Fistula. Since they did so much work and I cant possible tell you everything, I will just provide some examples of their accomplishments.




Orphan Support:
- Made school payments for 95 students;
- Received pictures and letters from 91 students;
- Coordinated summer camp for students; and
- Conducted a review of all local universities for students hoping to continue studies.



Safe Water:
- Designed a new promotion presentation;
- Sold a total of 183 bottles and 12 tablets of WaterGuard; and
- Surveyed 276 households on their health and sanitation practices.

Healthcare:
- Trained eye care community health workers to diagnose trachoma’s and cataracts;
- Developed a preliminary budget for a preventative dental clinic;
- Created a protocol manual for a pharmacy at the Ibulanku Health Center; and
- Conducted a baseline evaluation of the nutrition program at Ibulanku Health Center.

Obstetric Fistula
- Accompanied 15 women to Kamuli Hospital for fistula repair;
- Conducted outreaches in over ten villages, educating the public about fistula and working to remove stigma attached to the condition;
- Began school outreaches to create more awareness of the condition; and
- Organized and ran workshops with Traditional Birth Attendants and Local Counselors.

The summer teams this year were truly an amazing group of people! To all of the volunteers, I want to send a big thank you on behalf of UVP for helping us work towards our goals and sustainable development here in Iganga District.

A new project introduced by David Dinh, a volunteer from 2005 as well as our current treasure, also took place this summer. He is using the traditional clay pots and inserting a plastic water tap into them to better ensure water quality. This project has made a running start and continues to truly prove to be almost revolutionary in the villages. Starting with only 50 pilot pots in the parish of Kalalu has proved incredibly successful, and now we are working on manufacturing more of the pots within Iganga town. Our hopes are that with the use of the tap and the new modified pot it will reduce the recontamination of water within the homes.

The shallow well project is still going on strong. This summer we were able to accomplish four new wells in the Parish of Kalalu. Our good friends the Long family, whom also blessed us with a visit mid-July, made this possible. The Long family and some friends came and checked out our projects here in Uganda. It was great to be able to show off all of UVP’s good work. Creating these four wells in only two months taught us some valuable lessons about what we want to change in the following wells. For example, we have learned more on required depths and have thought about getting a water pump to help when digging below the water level.

We were also lucky this summer to be visited by a film crew from Santa Monica, California. Mark, Brian, and Greg came out here with a real vision on helping UVP’s work get out to the masses back stateside. Armed with two cameras, they spent a full week interviewing volunteers, following me around visiting our projects, and talking to the communities that had benefited from our projects. It was once again great fun to show off UVP, and I am so excited to see through the magic of editing what comes out of all of their tireless efforts. So, stay tuned to see a professional short film on UVP coming soon!


The film crew at work in Uganda

Of course all of these visitors couldn’t stay forever. The volunteers left at the end of July along with the Longs and the film crew leaving me in Uganda to keep their entire great work going.

However, it wasn’t long until UVP had another set of visitors, the Vassar Uganda Project. This team of Emergency Medical Technicians from Vassar College came with a laundry list of goals and objectives. Here are just a few:

1) Education. Educating the public of Iganga about various aspects of personal health care. Potential subjects are: CPR/first aid, proper hygiene, blood borne pathogens, and disease transmission.
2) Prevention. Preventative projects will focus on preventing the following conditions: Malaria, malnutrition, and death or injury due to lack of trained health-care providers.
3) Treatment. Provide supplies to local health care professionals, and fund the treatment for those individuals selected by the project (to be discussed in the sections hereafter). We hope to work in limited capacities with local health care professionals to learn from their experience and expertise, form a long-term relationship with them, and assess supply needs for an anticipated continued relationship.

As you all may know, once on the ground to implement a project, sometimes goals and objectives are reevaluated, and they develop into even larger projects. Such was the case for the Vassar Uganda Project. Once here, the Vassar team realized the dire need for an Emergency Response System. Therefore after meeting with the District Health Offices they began the gargantuan task of rehabilitating the Emergency Response System here in Iganga. To develop this system, they are hoping to form a partnership with Iganga District Health in which they are both responsible for aspects of the program. Now, the Vassar team is back in the US, but we are excited for their return to Uganda hopefully in January.

Now with these visitors gone, I have had time to focus on some of the more administrative aspects of UVP. We are close to being registered as a NGO in Uganda, thanks to Alison in the US as well. I have begun evaluating all of our wells with the help of Patrick, and I must say the feedback from the community is really great. I will write more about that when it is all completed.

We have also made our yearly change in UVP officers and Board members, and we are happy to welcome the new additions to UVP. Thank you to those that have resigned from their posts, as you all did a great job!

Well, I think that’s enough for now. If anyone would like more information about our projects this summer or anything else about UVP, please write. We will do our best to respond to you in a timely manner.

Thank you for all your support.

Tubonagane!! (See you!!)

Kristen Shuken

May Update

Summer Project Preparation Notes from Matt:

Fistula:
I have interacted with the Namungalwe H/C III staff a couple of times on quick visits. Hannah has praised their staff and my first impressions agree with her. The Peace Corps volunteer, Hannah, had also talked to me about the shortage in staff at the health center. She said that even if they have VCT kits there are never enough trained staff for counselling. I talked to Gregory and the In-charge of that health Sub-district, Charles Waiswa, and they both said it is a growing issue that is resulting in people not getting tested.

Eye Clinic:
Othieno James, our ophthalmologist contact, quoted an appropriately sized generator at 300,000. Based on the previous notes (I recently sent out newer ones as well) and what our plan is, we will post this as a need on ChooseANeed.

Safe Water:
Reverend has been fixing up his nephew's home, which is very close to his home. Kristen and I will make a final visit this week.

Dental Clinic:
Tim is preparing for the arrival of the summer team to work on the dental clinic at People and Development Initiatives. Kristen and I will meet with Sula and the Project Coordinator sometime during their first week.