Football4WASH - a red card to thirst

Access to safe drinking water

Football is played by around 2.6 billion people worldwide. One of them, Mustafa Kizza, a Ugandan international footballer who now plays for Montreal in Major League Soccer, talks about his childhood in Kampala: "As a little boy growing up in the slums of Kampala, football was my gateway to everything good. To school, to health and to friends. Growing up here was hard, and being lucky enough to have access to clean water, hygiene and toilets was reserved for only a few in neighbourhoods like Kibuli, Bakuli or Kisenyi. Families have to choose whether they prefer to spend their money on food or on water; diarrhoea and cholera are common here. I firmly believe that everyone in the world has the right to clean water and basic services. It is especially important that beyond this basic care, children also get educated about health and learn how to protect themselves from disease."

Background

Although Kampala is located directly on the shores of Lake Victoria, lack of drinking water as well as lack of awareness of important hygiene behaviour are the main causes of diarrhoeal diseases, cholera, typhoid and other serious illnesses. Proper sanitation and hygiene behaviour reduces the risk of disease by almost half, with hand washing with soap considered the cheapest yet most effective public health measure. Clean drinking water in schools also has a direct, positive impact on school performance. However, according to UNICEF (2021), unfortunately only about 30 per cent of all schools in Uganda have hand-washing facilities and one in three schools has no access to safe drinking water at all. Especially in the inner-city districts of Kampala, where many people live together in a small space, clean drinking water is considered an expensive luxury that is often only available in the form of bottled water. The resulting health and economic consequences make access to clean drinking water, hygiene and sanitation one of the biggest challenges for people in these communities.

The good deed

With your good deed today, you will give school children in Kampala access to clean drinking water. 15 schools are being equipped with drinking water filters and mobile hand washing stations as part of the Football4WASH (F4W) programme. Other needs-based measures, such as the construction of toilets or washrooms for girls, also ensure a healthy school and learning environment. The F4W programme uses football-based training to teach effective hygiene practices such as hand washing with soap or the proper use of toilets in a fun way. By increasing access to health and education, participating students are empowered and motivated to confidently share what they have learned with their families and communities. They become solution-oriented, proactive creators of a world without thirst and thus lay the foundation for a sustainable and lasting improvement of the health situation in their communities.