SDG2 IN UGANDA

Brenda Okello's story

Brenda Okello right with her family

The Toshiba Carbon Zero Scheme supports the ongoing activities to rehabilitate and maintain boreholes in Uganda. These are mainly boreholes which have fallen into disrepair, denying communities access to safe water and forcing people to boil water in order to make it safe, thereby contributing to CO2 emissions.

Agriculture is far and away the largest employer in the world, providing livelihoods for 40% of the world’s population. In Uganda, over 60% of people are directly involved in agriculture, the majority of which is on a small-scale household level. This activity is becoming increasingly challenging, with unpredictable rainfall and declining soil quality due to the loss of tree cover having a very negative impact on yields.

In Uganda, as in much of Africa, rural women face a double burden of having the main responsibility for ensuring their household’s agricultural output whilst also caring for children and fulfilling other domestic tasks. This is the case for Brenda Okello from Bung village in Kole district, Uganda.

At only 22, she is responsible for looking after and feeding a family of five. Before the rehabilitation of the borehole, the family had no access to safe water and would collect water from the swampy areas surrounding the village. They were then left with a stark choice between drinking unsafe water or spending large amounts of time gathering firewood to boil the water to make it safe. Brenda would gather firewood whenever she could, but this presented a major challenge as it stopped her from spending time tending to crops to ensure that the family had food. However, when she didn’t boil water to make it safe, family members would very often become sick, meaning that a lot of money had to be spent on medicines for illnesses such as diarrhoea and bilharzia.

Brenda farms maize as the staple food for her family in addition to various vegetables and reports that: “I now have enough time to spend on my farm which means the yield of my crops has improved. I don’t have to spend money on medicines so I can invest more in the tools and resources I need for farming, and my family is secured from food shortages.” Finally, Brenda says: “Thanks Toshiba in partnership with CO2balance for supporting us with clean and safe water. This has improved our condition and is eliminating poverty and hunger from our communities!”

 

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