Day 2

One year of access to clean drinking water for a schoolchild in Uganda

Football4WASH – Show thirst the red card Football4WASH – Show thirst the red card

One year of access to clean drinking water for a schoolchild in Uganda
Day 2
Access to clean drinking water

Football is played by around 2.6 billion people worldwide. One of them, Mustafa Kizza, a Ugandan national football player who now plays for Montreal in Major League Soccer, talks about his childhood in Kampala: "As a young boy growing up in the slums of Kampala, football was my gateway to everything good. To school, to health and to friends. Growing up here was hard and the happiness of having access to clean water, hygiene and toilets was reserved for only a few in districts like Kibuli, Bakuli or Kisenyi. Families have to decide whether they would rather spend their money on food or water; diarrhea and cholera are commonplace here. I firmly believe that every person in the world has the right to clean water and basic services. It is particularly important that children receive health education in addition to this care and learn how to protect themselves from disease."

Access to clean drinking water
need
Access to clean drinking water, sanitation and hygiene for school children in Kampala.
activity
Schools are equipped with drinking water filters and hand-washing stations. Students are motivated to behave hygienically through F4W.
Measurable performance
Number of children receiving clean drinking water.
Result
Students drink clean water and wash their hands with soap, which results in a reduction in sickness absences and an improvement in academic performance.
Systemically relevant impact
Overall improvement in the health of families and communities in Kampala. Reduction in child mortality.
background

Although Kampala is located directly on the shores of Lake Victoria, a lack of drinking water and a lack of knowledge about important hygiene behavior are the main causes of diarrheal diseases, cholera, typhoid and other serious diseases. Appropriate sanitation and hygiene behavior reduces the risk of disease by almost half, with handwashing with soap being considered the most cost-effective and at the same time most effective public health measure. Clean drinking water in schools also has a direct, positive impact on school performance. Unfortunately, according to UNICEF (2021), only around 30 percent of all schools in Uganda have handwashing facilities and one in three schools has no safe access to drinking water at all. Especially in the inner-city districts of Kampala, where many people live together in close quarters, clean drinking water is considered an expensive luxury that is often only available as bottled water. The resulting health and economic consequences make access to clean drinking water, hygiene and sanitation one of the greatest challenges for the people in these communities.

Kampala Uganda
Day 2 Day 2
The good deed

With your good deed today, you are giving school children in Kampala access to clean drinking water. 15 schools are being equipped with drinking water filters and mobile handwashing stations as part of the Football4WASH (F4W) program. Other needs-based measures, such as the construction of toilets or washrooms for girls, also ensure a healthy school and learning environment. The F4W program uses football-based training to teach effective hygiene practices in a playful way, such as washing hands with soap or the correct use of toilets. Through improved access to health and education, participating students are empowered and motivated to confidently share the knowledge they have learned with their families and communities. They become solution-oriented, proactive designers of a world without thirst, laying the foundation for a sustainable and lasting improvement in the health situation in their communities.

AboutUganda
Kampala
Kampala
Capital city
45 741 000
45 741 000
Population
817.0
817.0
Gross domestic product per capita per year
Rank 159 of 189
Rank 159 of 189
Human Development Index (Human Development Index)

Uganda is one of the youngest countries in the world, with an average age of 16.7 years (Statista, 2020). Bwindi National Park is home to one of only two mountain gorilla populations still living in the wild (WWF, 2021).