A 29-year-old woman from Bushey has returned from a trip to Uganda with international development charity WaterAid.

Hannah Battram, environment and education co-ordinator at Affinity Water was chosen to represent the company on the week-long trip with fundraisers from 13 other water companies.

She visited WaterAid projects in the flooded urban slums of Kampala, and in rural communities, to see how the money raised locally by the company’s employees and customers is changing lives in countries like Uganda. 

In particular, she spent time in the rural villages of Ojalao and Bobol to find out what day to day life is like for people living with and without safe water and toilets.

In Ojolai, Hannah spent time with a 70-year-old woman, Anastasia Asingo, and her family, to find out first-hand what life is like without clean water and access to toilet alongside their daily challenges for survival.

She said: "I helped to collect the water from the ‘well’ - it was basically a pond, totally disease ridden, milky-looking with mosquitoes in it.

"I couldn’t believe my eyes.

"The weight of the jerry cans also shocked me; I could barely even lift them. The mums and children make the gruelling trip to collect this water up to six times a day, in the searing heat.

"Imagine trying to carry 20kg on your head, whilst also carrying a baby and bringing a toddler with you - it’s unacceptable."

Hannah also spent time with children in a local school and found how girls in particular, suffer as a result of poor sanitation. Many girls miss up to 60 days of school a year because they don't have access to hygiene facilities during their menstruation cycles.

In Bobol, Hannah visited a primary school where WaterAid is working to supply clean water and suitable toilets for the children.
 
She said: "The children were happier here and educated about hygiene - the difference in them was incredible. 

"We saw hygiene messages around the school, and we even helped the girls to make cloth sanitary towels. It makes you realise just how much of an improvement WaterAid can make.

Reflecting on the visit, Hannah added: "I’ve now seen for myself how WaterAid spends the money we’ve raised in the UK. It’s not only about taps and toilets - the projects can help communities take control of their rights, and access the resources that they are entitled to.

"But the most shocking thing for me was when we heard about a woman who’d died in the Kampala slums we went to.

"She died that morning, because she fell in the open sewers that were full to the brim from the previous night’s rains. She was just taking her little girl to school. Her daughter was rescued, but for her it was too late.

"Clean water and toilets are things we take for granted here in the UK, but for some people they’re a luxury.

"Just imagine if we couldn’t turn on the tap, go to the loo, have a shower, wash our children - they have no choice but to use whatever water they can find. That very water could make them ill, or could cause a fatal sickness."

Trip leader Caroline Wakelin: "It was fantastic for the supporters to be able to observe and understand the depth of WaterAid’s work in Uganda.  Advocacy is a vital element; for our group to be there on World Toilet Day and hear from the Minister of Health just how much WaterAid is respected, was an honour."