Through Glasgow University charity Students Volunteer Abroad a group of 7 of us are taking part in a volunteer project in Uganda from June to August this summer. As part of our project we must raise a total of £2600 as a group. This money will go towards equipment needed and engineers whose expertise is vital for the success of the project.

One of the main challenges within the country is a lack of clean water, meaning that hundreds die needlessly each year from water and sanitation related diseases. We work with an NGO called Little Big Africa (LBA) to try to alleviate some of these problems through providing access to water in rural communities.

WHAT WE WILL DO:

"After undergoing an intensive training from LBA, volunteers team up with community groups to complete the implementation stage of the projects. Not only do volunteers, both international and from the local community, assist in the construction of water tanks and protected water sources, volunteers also help organising and training project committees set up to increase maintenance and sustainability of projects, and provide WASH & stove related training to the surrounding community. LBA follows a strict policy to promote responsible volunteering and ensure volunteer projects are needs based and respectful of local values and culture. "

Each of the components involves setting up a committee in the local community who can maintain and continue the project, meaning that the work SVA carries out with LBA is highly sustainable.

- Little BIG Africa (LBA) prides itself on enabling low cost, low budget development activities to take place in the heart of rural communities.

- Too many development activities have huge budgets with high administration costs and the money not really going to where it is needed.

- LBA works as much as possible with volunteers, both local and international, and runs all its projects with very minimal administration costs. There are no flights, no allowances or hotel bills, and no UK overhead costs. This means the impacts are really felt in the rural communities that LBA supports.

- All projects are conducted hand in hand with the local communities as well as the District Administration.

- Schools and Communities make a contribution to every project that takes place such as sand, hardcore boulders and labour depending on the requirements of the project.

- Schools and communities also form committees for every project to encourage participation, community ownership and effective, local management.

- Every project, whether conducted this year or 9 years ago, is visited at least 3 times a year to support the committees managing the projects.

You can get more information about the project and charity here - http://www.littlebigafrica.org/what-we-do/