CREEC TO TRANSFORM WATOTO SSUBI VILLAGE INTO A SUSTAINABLE HOME

Watoto Child Care Ministries was founded by Gary and Marilyn Skinner. In 1994 Watoto was birthed through Watoto Church after heartbreaking encounters of widows and orphans in Uganda. Starting with one simple house in Kansanga; a suburb that is eight kilometres south of Kampala, Watoto now has 3 villages Ssubi, Bira and Laminadera housing several widows and orphans.

Students at one of the Watoto schools

The institution aims to create an eco-friendly environment for these children, raising them to become leaders who bring sustainable change to their nation and beyond. To make this possible, Watoto is implementing better ways of building sustainable and cost-effective homes and villages by using sustainable forms of energy. It is in this regard that CREEC was contracted to assist Watoto in implementing a pilot solar project for 10 of their households in Ssubi Village. This project will also incorporate an element of improved cooking using improved cookstoves a step further from the current traditional cookstoves used by the mothers.

A view of the set up of one of the watoto homes

A baseline survey was conducted at the Ssubi village on 11 homes, 10 of which shall be beneficiaries of the pilot  project and one was part of the control group The survey assessed the following areas;-

–       The personal bio data of the mothers

–       Their needs for cooking.

–       Their needs for lighting.

From the baseline survey it was observed that the cooking facilities needed to be improved because the homes were using semi-ceramic stoves and in terms of lighting the mothers are currently using two solar lamps per house which is quite inadequate to light all the rooms in each house. After the energy audit , a solar system is going to be set up for the selected homes to ensure that all the rooms in the house are properly lit and an improved cooking system will also be evaluated to improve the cooking methods for the mothers.