Amigos built a rainwater harvesting tank at St Jude’s Primary and Nursery School in Magigye.

The borehole, where the children used to fetch water from was 1km away. ‘We could never collect enough water,’ explains teacher Dennis Oola. ‘The children would have to spend time fetching water when they should have been in lessons, as well as collecting water before and after school. The water from the borehole wasn’t clean and would cause stomach problems - around ten children a year would be hospitalised with typhoid.’

Today one day’s rain equals a week's worth of water with the harvesting tank.

The benefits?

• The children are healthier and attendance at school has improved. Before the tank 140 children used to come to school, now 180 turn up every day.
  
  
• The children don’t have to miss lessons to collect water
  
  
• Before the tank the kids would drink half a cup of water a day, now they can have more than 2 cups of water a day. 

‘As I teacher I notice that they are very active now, they pay more attention and they can concentrate better,’ says Dennis. ‘Before we had the tank only a handful of children in my class could concentrate, the rest were dull and lethargic from dehydration. Now the whole class is concentrating and performing better in tests. The top students used to get 60% in their exams, now they’re getting 70-80%.’