Health is a very great component of development. Unfortunately, in Uganda today, it’s still quite a struggle regardless of the different efforts set up by many people to facilitate the presence of clean water and sanitation as an aspect of good health.

According to many scholars, the human right to safe and accessible water, as recognised by the United Nations General Assembly in 2010, is inextricably linked with other human rights and therefore lack of access has a profound negative impact on many related Human Rights.

Worrying Statistics;

• 82% of the population’s sanitation facilities in Uganda have no hand-washing facilities – only 8% have water and soap;
• Urban households travel 200 metres to the main source of water compared to 800 metres in rural areas;
• Only 15% of people have access to water on tap, despite improvements.

The Uganda Vision 2040 promises universal access to water and sanitation – all Ugandans will have access to safe piped water and a modern toilet facility. Some of the steps to achieve this vision involve government partnerships with the private sector to promote planned movement of people from scattered rural to planned settlements to ease delivery of utilities and services.

Borehole campaign:

The borehole campaign was designed in a bid to take clean water to people in rural areas thus giving them a chance at good health and sanitation.

With the goal to educate young children. empower youth innovations, and promote health and sanitation of community, the borehole campaign was born. The proposed place of establishment of these boreholes is next to Primary schools which is like killing two birds with one stone because the children will not have to go and fetch water from long distances thus they can focus on education (if they have a boarding section)

With this campaign the Foundation doesn’t only seek to construct these boreholes but also spread awareness to these communities on the services that the organization can support with if they are to work hand in hand.

“With these boreholes, water supply is not only dependent on unpredictable weather patterns as has been the case but also the communities get safe domestic water through the year helping the people to focus on other economic activities,” says Mark Keron Wamala, the foundation’s Public Relations Officer.

This Saturday of March 16, 2019, the Foundation will be holding an awareness interactive session with the community occupants with the aim of understanding their challenges better and with the main goal of “Touching hearts”.

Who is Alice Dora Foundation?

Alice Dora Foundation is a non-profit organization that was built on the legacy left behind by the original pioneer(Alice Dora Nankinga 1992-2018) who had a dream to provide educational opportunities to children who are in need, better family well-being at large, provide basic needs for the elderly, empower the young to exploit their skills while putting a smile on their faces.

With the same vision, the members of the foundation have carried on this dream and In line with its mission to bring development to communities, Alice Dora Foundation, is running a campaign to donate boreholes to the Kayini Kamwokya Community of Mukono.

With the mission to make sure that young people and the youth can archive education and a bright future through growing their talents and enhancing African cultural values through entertainment by providing a good blend of African Music genres with contemporary spice, Martin Male started a program that has seen many children get helped out of poverty in Uganda.

Baraka Performers brings together youth, and enhances/taps into their talent of dancing thus enabling their benefit through their skill.

Baraka Performers’ versatile artists celebrate human happiness through a seemingly endless repertoire of dances and songs that they ebulliently execute using different parts of the body, such as: stamping dances, hip dances, arm dances and abdominal dances.

Beyond just reaching out to children, they also aim at promoting the Tourism industry through the promotion of culture both nationally and internationally.

The group hosts both domestic and foreign tourists at their cultural center in Gayaza to enjoy the various dances, songs and plays originating from the various regions in Uganda and from the rest of Africa.

Through the use of mostly local musical instruments like the adungu, engalabi, empunyi, embuutu, endigidi, amakondere, among others to entertain crowds at events.

Some of the cultural dances that the Performers indulge in include; Bakisimba, Amagunjju, Runyege, Ntogoro, Kitagururo, Kizino, Tamana, Buga, Illongo, Adungu, Otwenye, Gaze, Kadodi, to mention but a few.

From the events such as weddings, and cultural shows that these young people perform at, leaving crowds in awe, they also get revenue that has helped them out of poverty and in school.

The Vision of Baraka Performers is to become the Premium entertainment group in Africa.

To support these young people even more, book them for your events and you won’t be disappointed. Send them a message via Facebook.

Nyana Kakoma is the founder of Sooo Many Stories, a publishing house and online platform which allows Ugandan writers to express their creativity. To date, Sooo Many Stories has published two books: The Headline That Morning and Other Poems by Peter Kagayi and Flame and Song by Philippa Namutebi, along with several other short stories. The blog she started in 2014 with the support of her husband has now morphed into a publishing house with a dedicated staff of four, and a wealth of Ugandan literal content in short stories, poems and book reviews.

After several years in the journalism and communications industry, Nyana quit her job and dedicated herself to creating this space that would be home to Ugandan writers and an outlet for so many stories. Her inspiration to start the blog was rooted in the fact that not many people knew about Ugandan literature. While an editor for the in-house Magazine and other publications at Madhivani group, she horned her writing skills and got to interact with other people in the African literary space.

“It was during this time that I started traveling for workshops outside Uganda and people were talking about publishers, writers and editors in their countries, but there were not so many from Uganda. I started getting a hunger for a platform that would talk about Ugandan writers.”  Nyana says

When she took the plunge into the publishing world, she attended several trainings and an editorial internship with Modjaji books in Cape town where she learnt from the extra ordinary Colleen Higgs, who still remains one of her biggest influences alongside Ella Allfrey, Jennifer Makumbi and Goretti Kyomuhendo (Founder of African Writers Trust). Through this internship, she learnt the ins and outs of publishing and got the necessary tools and motivation to expand her blog into a publishing for Ugandan literature.

“I wanted people to take me seriously, to take the blog seriously. I was doing this for real, not as a part time job. That meant that I  put in a lot. I would do interviews, book reviews and attend all these events. No one was paying me but the sheer joy of doing what I love made it worth it.”

Sooo Many Stories has taken on the responsibility of cultivating a reading culture in Uganda through book clubs for adults, teenagers and children. The Fireplace: Tot tales  is where children from the ages of 4 to 12 gather to read books. Divided into groups of 4 – 6, 7 – 9 and 10 – 12 years, these books clubs see up to 45 children at every session. These sessions are held in Ntinda at the Innovation Village and in Bugolobi. Two more chapters will be opened next year in Muyenga and Entebbe. This initiative has gone a long way in nurturing a keen interest in books both for children and adults.

“People throw around the phrase “reading culture in Uganda is so bad” but you don’t know how quite terrible it is that is until you try to sell a book, until you try to convince someone to buy a book. It was terrible, we started thinking. So we decided to start book clubs, which are called fireplaces. To boost the reading culture, it has to be done from the grass roots. If we are to promote Ugandan literature, it has to be through a holistic approach by making books available for children to read.” Nyana says

This brilliant concept has had a visible transformational effect on the children.

“The book clubs have created an explosion of reading. We’ve seen results. We’ve seen parents say “watch out for my kid he doesn’t talk to anyone” but that kid will be the first one to speak when we ask for volunteers to read. We’ve seen parents tell us that my kid is interested in books now. We are approaching reading from a fun side. Showing these kids that books are fun. They don’t have to be academic.”

Nyana envisions a time in Uganda when reading will become a thing. For people to stay in doors on weekends just to read without having people ask “Do you have a paper?” With the state of the economy, buying a book may not necessarily be a priority like soap and food but just like food, when you do not read you die too. It may not be a physical death, but lack of knowledge kills