Electricaid Project of the Month

Basic needs for girls' education in Uganda

Keeping children in education is a key driver of development and success – in Ireland, in Africa or anywhere. In the west, we struggle to keep children interested. In Uganda, they are very committed to education – but the needs are more basic.

St Joseph Biikira Girls' Primary School in Kyotera, Uganda, had two basic priorities – clean water for the pupils and desks for them to sit at. Clean water is a huge issue in Africa but plenty of it falls from the sky. Dirty water is a dreadful killer – especially of the young. The children at this school were faced with daily 4km walks to fetch dirty water. The other basic need – for desks – was as a result of the huge increase in enrolment.

A grant of €7,800 from ElectricAid in June 2007 answered their call and it enabled the school to construct a rainwater harvesting and storage system, guaranteeing clean onsite water for the school community. The parents pitched in with direct labour to construct tank stands and to install guttering, piping and two large plastic storage tanks. The grant also facilitated the purchase of 140 desks, allowing 420 children the 'luxury' of sitting at a desk at school for the first time.

This project has allowed a certain threshold of human dignity for hundreds of children and will hopefully allow more of then to stay in school for a better future. Basic needs met – with a modest injection of your money.