IHSU Uganda Collaborative Research Proposal
Children collecting water from bore holes installed by the Ugandan government.
Many of the services and amenities we take for granted in Australia, such as clean and reliable water supply, at home and at school, are not available in many developing countries, such as Uganda.
As a result, the lives of many children are exposed to unnecessary waterborne diarrheal infections, such as typhoid fever, cholera and hepatitis A and to diseases spread by faecal bacteria such as dysentery. These diseases are often contracted by eating food without washing hands or eating food that has come in contact with dirty water.
A report in a top medical journal The Lancet, recently stated that poor water sanitation and lack of safe drinking water take a greater human toll than war, terrorism and weapons of mass destruction combined.
A recent UN Report estimated that 4,000 children world wide, die every day as a result of diseases caused by ingestion of filthy water. A Report published by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington estimates that ninety percent of these are children under five years old. In Uganda, even though the Government is trying to improve clean water supply such as through the installation of bore holes as illustrated here, child mortality partly attributable to illnesses caused by poor water hygiene, is estimated at 130 per 1000. Concern about the plight of children in such circumstances has prompted researchers at the International Health Sciences University (IHSU) in Uganda to invite two researchers in the School of Education at UNE to join them in an international collaborative research project to investigate how information about sanitation and hygiene can be gathered and made available nationally through a program called Taking the First Action. The project is lead by Professor David Majwewe Ndungutse at the IHSU in Uganda and his Research Assistant Ms Teddy Nagaddya who have invited Prof. Margaret Sims and Dr. Charles Kivunja from the School of Education at UNE to be partners.
Following the invitation from the IHSU, Professor Sims visited the university in late April this year and laid the foundation for preliminary work currently being conducted by researchers at IHSU which should generate the data required to formulate an application for a research grant to finance this joint project.