Water is a very important element in life. Safe drinking-water, sanitation and hygiene are crucial to human health and well-being.
Water and Sanitation are human rights fundamentals to every child and adult as well. But in Uganda, poor sanitation and hygiene, as well as unequal access to safe drinking- water make thousands of children very sick and at risk of death. Diarrhea alone, one of the three major childhood killers in Uganda, kills 33 children everyday. In most cases, children get the disease by drinking unsafe water or coming into contact with contaminated hands.
According to WHO reports, 3 in 10 people worldwide, or 2.1 billion, lack access to safe, readily available water at home, and 6 in 10, or 4.5 billion, lack safely managed sanitation. One in three people don’t have a toilet, and 892 million people-mostly in rural areas-are forced to defecate in the open.
FOLM understands that clean water and good sanitation prevent water-borne diseases like diarrhea, cholera due to dirty water. FOLM works to empower rural communities to ensure there is increased access to clean water and improved sanitation, the development of new water sources and the implementation of water conservation techniques.
APPROACH TO IMPROVING WASH IN COMMUNITIES
1. Developing New sustainable water sources: We empower community members to drill new wells and boreholes, repair the existing ones, and develop water catchments.
2. Building capacity: We build the capacity of local community leaders to monitor, maintain and repair water systems.
3. Provision of sanitation programs: We train community members on basic knowledge about Hygiene, empowering them to build and repair latrines in homes, schools, churches and public spaces. This helps to reduce child deaths in communities.