With Christmas coming up we're all starting to think of Christmas parties and buying gifts for loved ones in the season of sharing and caring.

This Christmas I will be out in Uganda where I am working with the village of Lubajja on the shores of Lake Wamala in Mityana District where I am trying to help them develop their village through the use of safer water supplies and improved sanitation. The people of this village have lives which revolve around the lake: they catch fish here to sell and to eat; they use the lake as their water supply to drink, to cook and to wash; and they are also at times known to use the lake as a toilet. Even though the village does have pit latrines these are not adequate for the setting and disease readily enters the lake causing diarrhoea, typhoid and at times cholera. These people do not have the knowledge of the capital to get out of this vicious cycle of that seems them polluting the water only to end up drinking the diseased water.

This is where you and I come in; I have the knowledge to enable them to harvest rainwater, to fix their borehole and to install eco-sanitation toilets and I have the man power on the ground to ensure the right training and sensitisation is given to this community. You have the power to enable this to happen by a small donation to the village through this website. A single toilet costs only 100 pounds, while a water tank costs 300 pounds and so I am hoping that people will be able to donate, say, 10 pounds of their money at this time of year to help this village.

The money raising will then be loaned to the village such that they can set up a business charging people around 10 pence a day for 60 litres of water a day.  This would mean the village will have safer drinking water and better sanitation while at the same time giving the village a real way of raising funds (around 5,000 pounds per year) to develop and lift themselves out of poverty. Once the loan is repaid we will move onto another village on the shores of Lake Wamala, of which there are twenty in total. So, a small donation, of just 10 pounds, at this festive time of year could end up helping 20 communities and thousands of people.

I hope you can donate and seasons greetings and best wishes to you all.

Ian.