Accessing clean and safe drinking water has been and is still a big challenge to all communities in Northern Uganda during their recovery and transition from the 26year insurgency of the Lord’s Resistant Army.

By Joshua Oballim: There are a number of reasons why poverty has become an epidemic in Northern Uganda, Poverty can be the result of political instability, ethnic conflicts, climate change and other man-made causes.

But one of the greatest causes of poverty in Northern Uganda is also the most overlooked…the lack of access to clean drinking water.

The lack of water is an often insurmountable obstacle to helping oneself. You can’t grow food, you can’t build housing, you can’t stay healthy, you can’t stay in school and you can’t keep working.

Without clean water, the possibility of breaking out of the cycle of poverty is incredibly slim.

With unclean water sources often miles from villages, many of the able bodied members of a community are forced to spend hours each day simply finding and transporting water. The typical container used for water collection in Africa, the jerry can, weighs over 40 pounds when it’s completely full, using a bicycle is the most effective simplest way for both men, Women and children to fetch water, we are doing that and it is really helping our communities in Northern Uganda

Imagine how demanding it would be to carry the equivalent of a 5-year old child for three hours every day. And some women carry even more, up to 70 pounds in a barrel carried on the back. That’s like carrying a baby hippo.

The social and economic effects caused by a lack of clean water are often the highest priorities of our communities when they speak of their own development.

The BAP Project is able to work with local partners to provide closer and faster access to clean water. One of Our goal is to improve access to clean and safe drinking water which are at the moment very far away from the villages. By doing so, communities can be freed to begin working themselves out of poverty.

When you give to help provide a bicycle, you’ll make sustainable agriculture possible. You will allow children to get back to school instead of collecting dirty water all day.

You’ll help father’s find more time to care for their family, maintain a farm, and even run a small business.

You can help break the cycle of poverty in Northern Uganda.

How can you help?