I have been threatened before. I’ve had knives held to my neck, but I’ve never been held at gunpoint. Dr Opio though has been and his story of soldiers coming to the college where he was teaching in Northern Uganda and his walk back 40 kms through the bush crossing a river to safety while avoiding soldiers is riviting. I saw a few guns on our trip to Uganda, mostly with guards at restaurants, banks and gas stations. War and gun violence is not the threat that it once was in Northern Uganda but more dangerous still is the water. You might not get shot in Uganda but drink the water and you could end up feeling like it. Drinking water from the sources that villagers do in many locations in Northern Uganda could be like playing Russian Roulette. You never know what lies waiting for you in the dirty pools where people source their water from…. Just ask Dr Opio who has run tests on these water sources. The dangers of dirty water far outweigh the dangers of being shot in Uganda. Dirty water in Uganda and many other parts of Africa have been a source of many deaths and illnesses. The dirty water harbours parasites that lead to disease like typhoid fever, cholera,dysentery, vibrio illness, salmonellosis just to mention but a few. Seeing people and children die from diseases that can be prevented is very disturbing therefore NUDF is doing all that it can to try and provide the villagers with safe drinking water.
Perhaps you can help NUDF in the war against parasites, not only do we need wells but we need volunteers to do the jobs that help us raise funds to put these wells in.