GIFT OF SAFE WATER (GSW)
Access to safe water is a major challenge for people living in slums. Many people in these areas including our expectant women and preemie mothers find it very costly to have clean water in their homes. Alot of money is involved in buying charcoal to boil the water and containers for cooling and storing the water. Due to the expenses involved in obtaining clean water, our mothers can’t afford clean water so they often have no other choice but to drink unpurified water from the well or tap. This water is unsafe for humans to drink and has made many of our mothers and babies very sick. For the past two years we had our focus on mothers from Namuwongo. Why Namuwongo first? One may ask. Namuwongo is one of Kampala’s largest and poorest informal urban settlements with up to 30,000 residents. Many of those living there are refugees from Northern Uganda, DR Congo, South Sudan or from rural areas of Uganda seeking employment in the city. Living standards in Namuwongo are very poor with most families living in small, one room mud houses. These houses are susceptible to leaking roofs and flooding when it rains. Basic services like electricity, roads, street lighting and proper rubbish disposal are totally non- existent. There are open muddy channels between houses where waste water flows, rubbish is often discarded, and mosquitoes and rats live and breed there. There is also no effective sewage system meaning that every time when there are heavy rains, sewage flows through the streets of the slum. This is why Mama Tulia works with the mothers from Namuwongo to ensure health in slums improves.
Over 4,500 children under 5 die every year from water born diseases attributed to contaminated water, poor sanitation and unsafe hygiene practices. As Mama Tulia, part of our mission is to improve the wellbeing of our expectant women and preemie mothers by providing for their health needs. We have decided that one way to help do that is by providing water filters for our mothers that live in the slums. Purifaaya filters use natural ceramic filtration technology to effectively remove impurities and bacteria from water. This ensures provision of clean and safe drinking water all the time. These filters have been proven to be 99.9% safe by tests conducted by the Ugandan Ministry of Water and Environment. The purifaaya was also tested and approved by the Rwanda Standards board. It is as safe as boiled or bottled water. By providing these water filters, we make it possible for these mothers to have constant access to safe water for drinking. In 2021, we distributed 10, in 2022 we distributed 21 and currently in 2023 we have so far distributed 15 water filters to both preemie mothers and expectant women. We have recorded a great improvement in the health of the 40 mothers and their babies we have already gifted water filters to since 2021. Each water filter makes a long lasting and life changing impact on both the mother and the baby. These mothers can now feel safe and secure knowing they have safe water for drinking available to them in their homes. As Mama Tulia we deepen our focus on the most vulnerable, especially preterm mothers in fragile setting.
Here are some of the testimonies from preemie mothers we have given water filters.
Acayo Vicky
Owning a water filter has been of great help to my family. It saves me the trouble of spending on charcoal to boil water for drinking. This makes it possible for me to purchase food and other basic needs at home.
Kauda Esther
I bless the Lord for Mama Tulia, all the help and support rendered to me in this hard time being a preemie mother, the water filter has made it easy for me to have safe and clean water which Saves me from paying hospital bills to treat infections due to consumption of unclean water.
Nasali Dinah
Before I was given a water filter by Mama Tulia, I used to find it costly to boil water because charcoal is expensive of which sometimes I would fail to get then end up drinking the water without boiling it. My preemie boy was always falling sick but I really had no other alternative. This water filter has been life saving to me in a way that my child and I don’t fall sick anymore because we have clean and safe water to drink.
