Barclays.comKatine, Uganda
Our Katine programme is a long-term initative to improve economic sustainability, education and sanitation
The aims
Improving sanitation, hygiene, health, education and sustainable economic development in the Katine region, which comprises 66 villages in Eastern Uganda.
The story
The Katine project is a joint initiative by Barclays, the Guardian Media Group, and AMREF (African Medical and Research Foundation). It is a major socio–economic sustainability project providing improved water, sanitation and hygiene practices, improved health and education services, and sustainable economic development in the region.
AMREF is working directly with people in the region, and The Guardian newspaper in the UK is reporting progress in print and online, and raising funds from reader donations. Barclays is donating £1.5m to the project and drawing on its business expertise to promote financial education and the provision of basic savings and loans services to 5,000 people through village banks.
Barclays will develop a sustainable model for rural banking that will deliver genuine community and business benefits, and enable us to work on new ways of delivering financial services in remote and rural locations.
Results to date
During the first six months of the programme, clean water was made available to more than 2,500 people and the whole population will be covered by the end of the project.
Primary education in the area is also being improved with teachers receiving extra training and new classrooms being built.
"We have a lot of models for health and school-based activities, but this is the first time we will be doing a project that is bringing all these different activities together, and with Barclays financial inclusion component adding huge value," says Joshua Kyallo, Uganda Country Director, AMREF. "It is breaking new ground."
The Katine partners have set themselves ambitious targets to achieve in the coming years including better health, clean water and primary school education.
Since the project launched, 66 community members have been trained in identifying signs of malaria and malnutrition and referring patients to clinics and health centres.In Katine, 77 per cent of the 25,000-strong population live on less than $1 a day.
