'Promises Made Good'
Ramogi lives in the Naguru-Binyonyi slum area of Kampala, one of the communities introduced to A Rocha Uganda in order that clean water might be provided for the community. At the beginning of the project Ramogi was very against it. He told the A Rocha Uganda staff that many times people had come promising to improve the water supply and had gone away without rehabilitating the well. ‘They came with empty promises’, he said.
So bad was the water supplied from the well, brown in colour, that Ramogi and many others had taken to purchasing water and carrying it to their homes. They did this to ensure that their families did not become ill from using dirty and contaminated water.
Following the intervention of A Rocha and the effective rehabilitation of the community water supply, the well now gives clear, clean water for the community to drink and to use in their homes.
At the beginning of A Rocha’s contact with the community Ramogi said to them: ‘I am a Muslim. I have never imagined Christians doing any good work. I want to see what difference you bring’.
Following the intervention, Ramogi is now one of the best advocates in the community for the new well. He now spearheads the mobilization of community members who each week clean the well. Like so many others, Ramogi and his household of some eleven people benefit directly from the clean water. They are no longer afraid of becoming ill from using dirty water and no longer do they need to spend hard-to-find cash to purchase clean water.