Healthy Homes Reported in Uganda

Households in underserved, rural Ugandan area reach a WASH milestone.

This month in the Kaliro District of eastern Uganda, Lifewater field staff certified the first “Healthy Homes”, bringing a new stage of improved health and dignity to hundreds of rural Ugandans. Healthy Homes are the building blocks of thriving communities, where vulnerable children and families work to realize the benefits of WASH access.

A “Healthy Home” indicates a household that successfully implements all of the requirements of safe water, improved sanitation, and hygiene. A household receives this designation when it demonstrates that it:

1. Drinks safe water (Water either from a safe source or treating water from an unsafe source)
2. Stores water properly (using a narrow-mouthed, clean container)
3. Uses an improved latrine with dignity (In Uganda this means walls, roof, door, slab, and pit cover)
4. Uses a proper handwashing device (which does not re-use water)
5. Uses a drying rack for dishes (raised off the ground)
6. Maintains a clean compound (clean of rubbish and trash)

Healthy Homes receive an official certificate and community recognition. With these behaviors in place, families can prevent the waterborne diseases that keep them trapped in poverty.

“We are happy to see the first Healthy Homes in Kaliro,” says Dr. Pamela Crane-Hoover, Lifewater’s VP of Global Programs. “Our field staff are effectively training community leaders to implement helpful WASH tools and behaviors and serve as examples in their communities. Now that these leaders have made the changes in their own homes, they can teach their neighbors how to do the same.”

As of July 28, 2016, the first nineteen Healthy Homes to demonstrate these six behaviors to Lifewater staff are located in the Nawaikoke and Bumanya Sub-counties. In June, Lifewater trained and deployed 105 WASH facilitators from 21 villages in their own communities. These households are the first of 3,500 expected in Kaliro over the next few years. Lifewater continues a multi-year project in the area that aims to serve 30,000 people in with safe water, sanitation, and hygiene.