History of Poverty Relief Foundation (PRF)

With the change of name, it was decided to work in a poverty-stricken area of the world to provide the basic essentials in life and in this respect water is the most vital.

The initial projects were in the Kampala region of Uganda but since then all our projects have been in Tanzania starting in the northern area of Kagera providing rainwater tanks, large & small, some in partnership with Mavuno, a local NGO, but all the wells directly with the local communities.

The large tanks of 50,000/150,000 litres provide clean water for the local community and the small tanks of 15,000 litres are in very rural areas and shared by 3/5 families.

We then moved into the southern part of Kagera where because of the level of the land it is possible to provide wells rather than rainwater tanks.  The disadvantages of the tanks and the advantages of the wells are

• The tanks had to be built on land owned by a school, church or other organisation close to buildings to enable the water to be collected from the gutters into the tanks.
• 3 or 4 wells can be constructed at the same cost of 1 large tank
• The water in a well is available all year if there is a good rainy season
• Water is available to many more at a well which is a focal point and a meeting place for the community

The first wells, 4 of them, were in 2005 and since then PRF has continued to funds more wells, classrooms and loans to women’s groups.

More information about these are available under the heading Projects.