On the ground in Uganda
Recently, Creemore resident and Tin Roof Global founder John Millar, along with his wife Emily Worts and Nottawa resident Leah Hagreen, who is on the Tin Roof Global board of directors, rode into Kamul, a rural town and district in south-central Uganda, on a narrow strip of tarmac.
The road, with its precarious, eroded edges, was navigated by a member of the Canada Africa School Partnership (CASP), the Ugandan organization that, in partnership with Tin Roof Global, implements programs on the ground, ensuring in the process that the funds raised here in Canada are used appropriately.
The trip along the road serves nicely as a metaphor for the partnership between the two organizations, with the CASP driver helping to steer the well-intentioned Canadians in the right direction.
“The cultural customs and practices are completely different there,” said Millar, who was visiting Uganda for the first time since Tin Roof started directing funds there. “They [CASP] help prevent us from learning the necessary lessons the hard way.”
As part of the Roof It H2O initiative, CASP uses the funds raised by Tin Roof Global to install what are, essentially, huge rain barrels on the roofs of schools in the Kamul region.
Many of the things we enjoy here in Canada simply don’t exist in rural Uganda, including readily available water. In many schools, students make multiple trips throughout the day to gather water, which takes them away from the classroom and makes it difficult for them to obtain a proper education, which, according to Millar, is essential in “breaking the cycle of poverty” that exists in rural Uganda.
Millar, Worts, and Hagreen visited four projects being funded by Tin Roof’s Roof It H2O initiative, including one, at Nakulabye Elementary School, that’s using $3,600 donated last year by St. Luke’s Anglican Church to Tin Roof. The total cost for the project, including roof repairs, installing eavestroughs, and constructing a 20,000-litre tank, is over $5,000, and will be completed within the next few weeks, just in time for the Ugandan rainy season.
At each of the four schools they visited, the members of Tin Roof travelled to the water sources that students used prior to the installation of the water collection systems. They found that the quality of the water was universally atrocious, oftentimes consisting of nothing more than a grey puddle in the middle of a farmer’s field. Some students even shared their water source with cattle and wildlife, and, unable to expend the resources necessary to boil it, were forced to drink it as collected.
“Water is a precondition to most successful development,” said Millar, adding that, by bringing water into schools, Tin Roof is not just filling the cups of students; there are ripple effects: after the water collection systems are installed, student enrollment and health tends to increase dramatically.
The water collection systems also allow schools to implement crop-growing programs. With water available, schools can sustain crops longer into the dry season, allowing them to feed students who might otherwise go hungry during the day.
“The community begins to view the school as a much stronger asset,” said Millar, “and are more inclined to want to protect it.”
The showing of appreciation is an integral part of regional Ugandan culture. After returning from viewing each school’s original water source, the Tin Roof team were greeted with a large ceremony, with students, teachers, administrators, parents and governmental officials breaking out drums, dancing and feasting in a demonstration of their gratitude.
“It was amazing to see in person the effect of what we are doing,” said Millar. “It was an emotional experience and I’ll never forget it.”
As part of the Roof It H20 initiative, Tin Roof Global also teaches Canadian students about the situation in Uganda and the importance of water as a foundation for development, connecting them with their Ugandan counterparts and encouraging them to lead fundraising efforts for the cause in their schools.
“We want to encourage a perspective of water as a precious, global resource,” said Millar, “both here and abroad.”
