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Engineers post next to control switches for the newly repaired stoves in Rwamwanja refugee settlement in Southwestern Uganda, July 2023.
Engineers post next to control switches for the newly repaired stoves in Rwamwanja refugee settlement in Southwestern Uganda, July 2023.

Clean water. Hot food. Safe roads. These are everyday necessities. But for many people, they are still out of reach.

RedR has embarked on an innovative partnership to support humanitarian engineering innovations looking to meet some of these challenges in Uganda. This is in collaboration with the Uganda Institution of Professional Engineers (UIPE) and the College of Engineering, Design, Art and Technology (CEDAT) at Makerere University, and made possible thanks to generous donations from WSPRamboll, and The Royal Academy of Engineering.

First, our Humanitarian Skills for Engineers training course strengthened the capacity of engineers in Uganda to lead such a project. Then, participants were awarded a microgrant of £3000 to enable them to practice the new skills acquired in the training, in partnership with a local NGO, for the benefit of a local community. Read on for the transformation brought by four different projects completed across Uganda.

Annet Nsiimire: Clean Energy and new life in Rwamwanja Refugee Settlement

The Rwamwanja Refugee Settlement in South-western Uganda is home to more than 78,000 people. Most are women and children, who have fled over the border from the conflict in North Kivu in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Rwamwanja had an urgent need for clean energy. At the Mahani reception centre, residents with specific health issues receive cooked meals. The clean energy system used by the residents was, however, in disrepair and difficult to use.

Annet Nsiimire was able to use her microgrant to bring change. She began a partnership with NGO Advance Africa to renovate twelve cooking stoves at Mahani, allowing the residents to cook with clean energy. The installation also included dimmer switches to allow heat to be regulated, greatly improving the cooking experience.

For Annet, it was a significant priority to empower the women and girls in Rwamwanja to use clean energy. Almost all households sampled in Annet’s community engagement exercise use firewood as a primary fuel, taking women and girls a minimum of two hours per day, every day, to collect. “It takes not less than six hours to collect firewood and get back home”, said one respondent. The women in Rwamwanja explained that in such daily journeys, the women and girls who go risk violent attack and sexual abuse, as well other threats such as snake bites. “Many times”, explained another respondent, “children are abused and beaten by landowners when looking for fuel, which may include agricultural residues and dung. Running away, they are cut by barbed wire.” Another respondent revealed that “the energy crisis is worse for refugees, because trees in settlement zones are marked, and no refugee is allowed to cut any tree. Members of the host community cut them.”

“Collection and use of fuels is a life-threatening activity”, says Annet. The use of clean energy, however, liberates women and girls from this dangerous daily labour, which causes conflict and degrades the environment. Annet has already seen the impact of repairing the clean energy stoves.

“Immediately after the project,” she says, “new arrivals came in, two mothers among them and gave birth. Because of the easy access to clean fuel, it was very easy to fix quick meals and access warm water to bathe the newborn babies. When I heard of this it was really fulfilling to my heart. Our project was making a difference in the community, supporting the babies’ first moments along with their mothers at such a significant time.”

Annet is now a Trainer on the Humanitarian Skills for Engineers course, passing on her skills and experience to new cohorts of humanitarian engineers, and multiplying the impact of her expertise.

Oryem John Speke: Access and empowerment in Iyer Communities

The rural access road to the Iyer village communities in Agago District, Northern Uganda, is often submerged. During the rainy season, residents are forced to travel an extra ten kilometres for basic services. No vehicles reach them. Humanitarian Skills for Engineers participant Oryem John Speke met members of the Organisation for African Social Development (OASD) at a RedR UK event in Kampala. With RedR UK microgrant funding, they planned a project to install culverts and drainage systems under the road, to transform the lives of people in the three Iyer village communities.

Previous culverts installed to draw water away from the road were not effective – they had been laid as part of political campaigns, without professional guidance. John’s team reinstalled this old material, along with a new bridge, so that the way to markets, employment opportunities, and health and education facilities would never be cut off by floodwater. The new culverts were tried and tested during the rainy season in April and May, where they swept away flash flood water without affecting the new bridge or the road.

Culverts built during a microgrant project to prevent the road from flooding, allowing the Iyer community to cross. July 2023.
Culverts built during a microgrant project to prevent the road from flooding, allowing the Iyer community to cross. July 2023.

Mobilising the community made the project a success. John and the dedicated OASD team collaborated tirelessly, engaging local and district leaders, stakeholders, and community members with the right message. “There has been an increase in the community’s awareness of their role in community development”, says John. The people of Iyer were mobilised to provide local resources, including finance, tools, and labour. “The project has also promoted unity in the community”.

A significant achievement was the participation of women and girls. John took care to ensure they contributed to the decision-making process and planning, as well as implementation. “I helped them to know that they can do anything the men do, from setting out project site and masonry, to clearance of the site, and the reinstatement of the environment”, shares John. “I had to give them opportunities to show what they are capable of”. 20 women and girls worked on the installation of the project. “Thus,” explains John, “women have come to learn and participate in the community at large, and they are seen as valuable. When it started, people in the community would say that women cannot do this job. But during implementation phase, they were seeing the benefits!”

The Iyer communities still face many challenges, including the most pressing – no access to safe water during dry seasons. OASD has introduced a social development plan to community members. They will continue to work with them in the coming months, opening an office at Iyer Tekulo to implement more life-changing projects.

John and OASD have already jointly written a proposal for water supply, irrigation, and a solar powered water pump, and they are now looking for a sponsor to help provide clean water year-round for the whole Iyer community, as well as installing additional culverts for other access roads.

Swaib Semiyaga: Water and welcome at Rhino Camp Refugee Settlement

Rhino Camp Refugee Settlement in Madi-Okollo, northwestern Uganda, houses more than 130,000 refugees. Most of them have fled conflict in South Sudan.

Engineer Swaib Semiyaga, a Humanitarian Skills for Engineers participant, used a RedR UK microgrant to bring change for new arrivals to the settlement, partnering with the Arua District Water and Sanitation Association (ADWASA).

Two refugee reception centers in the Rhino Camp Settlement did not have easy-to-use handwashing points. Swaib explains, “a WASH project in a refugee setting requires regular maintenance to ensure that channel blockages and leakages are worked on. Pipes and valves are always vandalized.”

Working with ADWASA, Swaib coordinated the installation of four new water points, with reduced energy needs from previous models. The ease-of-use system eliminates valves at the user end point. They have improved the handwashing practice in the reception centres, encouraging new arrivals to use the taps in a safe and non-destructive way. 

The team’s vision is to expand this successful initiative to other humanitarian settings, enabling more communities to benefit from improved WASH practices. Through their dedication and innovation, they have proven that small changes can make a big difference in transforming lives in even the most challenging of settings.

Taban Denis: Protection for young girls in Kira, Bweyogerere

In the heart of Wakiso district, engineer Taban Denis partnered with the Teenage Mothers and Child Support Foundation (TMCSF), to bring about a life-changing project – the construction of a community spring well.

This initiative aimed not only to provide safe water for thousands of households, but also to protect girls from teenage pregnancies and child marriages.

Prior to the project, the local community relied on a shallow and contaminated ponded spring for their water needs. The spring was often polluted by runoff surface water during rainy seasons, and littered with plastic. For 3,500 households, this meant compromising their health and well-being on a daily basis.

Joining humanitarian and engineering expertise, these projects have assisted communities to respond to disaster and prepare for upcoming risks. Affected communities are empowered to safeguard their local environment, their health, and their economic prospects.

Could you help bring basic provision to transform communities around the world? Give to RedR UK here, or contact fundraising@redr.org.uk to enquire about how you can support us.

If you’re interested in developing your skills, get in touch at training@redr.org.uk or browse our open courses here.

Participants at Essentials of Humanitarian Data Analysis training in Nairobi September 2024.
Participants at Essentials of Humanitarian Data Analysis training in Nairobi September 2024.

Annet’s experience with Essentials of Humanitarian Data Analysis training means she and her humanitarian engineering colleagues can choose the most effective engineering projects for people affected by disaster. 

Annet Nsiimire is a consultant, engineer and trainer. She’s working with RedR as an associate trainer, and with the College of Engineering, Design, Art and Technology at Makerere University in Uganda. She works to strengthen the capacity of engineers to carry out humanitarian engineering projects. 

“In my work, I encounter several challenges that hinder the effectiveness of humanitarian interventions”, she says. “Limited funding restricts the scale and scope of opportunities for training and fieldwork. Local people don’t have the technical capacity to effectively support humanitarian projects. We must coordinate complex stakeholder relationships – with competing priorities and agendas.” 

Through the training, Annet sought to enhance the existing training she offers to engineers by including data analysis and visualisation. The engineers she trains can then carry out projects informed by data, not only by anecdotal evidence.  

The training has significantly impacted Annet’s work

“The training was informative, engaging, and relevant”, says Annet. Through it, Annet gained hands-on experience with data visualisation tools, learnt statistical analysis and interpretation, understood data quality, ethical considerations, and communicating findings. She has also enhanced her skills for delivering effective training. 

I have greater confidence now, both to analyse data, and to deliver training to pass these skills onto others.

Even with the competing priorities, limited funding, and lack of technical experts in local contexts, using data effectively means that Annet can direct activity to the places where humanitarian engineering projects are needed most – and her work can have the greatest impact.  

Annet plans to integrate data analysis and interpretation into her humanitarian engineering projects. She’s passing on what she learnt to the humanitarian engineers she works with at Makerere University. Informed by sound data, the engineers she trains can also deliver humanitarian engineering that genuinely reaches the people who need it, in the most effective way.  

Essentials of Humanitarian Data Analysis is part of the Data Literacy Project, generously supported by USAID, and delivered in partnership with ACAPS. 

Participants at Essentials of Humanitarian Data Analysis training in Nairobi September 2024.
Participants at Essentials of Humanitarian Data Analysis training in Nairobi September 2024.

Mercy’s new confidence from Essentials of Humanitarian Data Analysis training means she can demonstrate that gender issues are not “just women’s issues”.  

Mercy Wanjohi works in the County Government of Nairobi, Kenya. She is a social scientist, working in gender and inclusivity. She leads programmes to mainstream gender across the work of the county government, as well as coordinating Nairobi County Safe Shelter, for survivors of gender-based violence. 

Mercy relies on data related to gender and gender-based violence in Nairobi to inform her policy recommendations to decision-makers.  

Gender issues are not given the relevant weight that is needed. There is very low understanding of what other sectors can do to mainstream gender. We don’t have the required information, so we can’t communicate the needs to decision makers.

Why are gender issues not considered important? As Mercy explains, “most people have the perception that gender issues are women’s issues”. 

Mercy joined Essentials of Humanitarian Data Analysis training in September 2024, to understand how to collect, analyse, and share data with decision makers. Now, she can recommend policies in Nairobi that support survivors of gender-based violence most effectively, and mainstream gender issues across the work of the Nairobi County government. 

“I was able to understand data sources and how to prepare analysis, as well as the different types of analysis”, she says. “Now, I’m confident to present data well for different audiences.   

A renewed confidence to present policy to decision-makers

Since the training, Mercy has returned to her role with a renewed confidence to engage decision makers with data on gender and gender-based violence. She’s reviewing all the data available to her, to analyse and use in her policy-making, and share with key stakeholders. 

“I am a firm believer that we are all endowed with a lot of talents that can help us as communities solve problems. It’s been so valuable to enhance my capacity to do so, through this opportunity”. 

Essentials of Humanitarian Data Analysis is part of the Data Literacy Project, generously supported by USAID, and delivered in partnership with ACAPS.