DGHI receives Ronald McDonald House Charities Grant to Expand Access to Clean Water in Uganda

PHP group photo

Published March 1, 2010, last updated on March 22, 2013 under Education News

The Duke Global Health Institute has been awarded a grant in the amount of $180,074 from Ronald McDonald House Charities® (RMHC®) to implement a rainwater harvesting project in Southwestern Uganda.

It is one of 15 new grants awarded by RMHC totaling nearly $3 million that supports its mission of improving child health in vulnerable populations around the world through health prevention and promotion, clinical treatment and education.

The DGHI project in Uganda, co-led by Duke faculty member Alex Cho and Ugandan physician and Duke researcher Christopher Kigongo, will involve the installation of rainwater harvesting tanks on 76 public buildings throughout the sub-county of Kashongi.  The goal of the project is to improve water quality and accessibility in Kashongi, where clean water is scarce and disease is prevalent.  The team will also carry out an evaluation to assess the program’s impact during the rainy and dry seasons. 

The project in Kashongi grew out of an effort involving several partners both on campus and in Uganda. The program has greatly benefited from the initiative of Progressive Health Partnership (PHP), a student organization founded by Duke undergraduate students in 2008. DGHI has also partnered with DukeEngage for the second consecutive year to fund ten undergraduate students to help implement the project over the summer.  The principal partner in Uganda is the Mayanja Memorial Hospital Foundation (MMHF), a local NGO founded by Benon Mugerwa, an obstetrician and gynecologist in the southwestern Ugandan city of Mbarara. 

“The program has exceeded anything that I could have reasonably expected, and this success has everything to do with the participating students’ engagement in, ownership of, and ongoing commitment to the partnership with Dr. Mugerwa and MMHF,” said Cho.

Last summer, ten DukeEngage students helped to implement a Safe Motherhood Initiative to improve maternal health through community-based screening for high-risk pregnancies and comprehensive prenatal education.  Through discussions with community members, it became abundantly clear that marked improvements were also needed to address the accessibility and quality of water. 

“We found that families in Kashongi spend approximately 45 minutes each day fetching water, and community members told us about the many diarrheal diseases that affect children,” said Josh Greenberg, PHP president.  “It will be satisfying to return to Kashongi and partner with the community members in taking another step to address some of their greatest challenges.” 

In looking forward, Cho expressed his optimism and gratitude. 

“Thanks to the generous funding of Ronald McDonald House Charities, we will be able to significantly expand our efforts into an area which has a tremendous impact on the health and well-being of children,” said Cho. “This has been a truly wonderful development.”

The rainwater harvesting project will begin in June 2010.

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