Water provision for two schools
For many years the Wilhelma, the Zoological-Botanical Garden of Stuttgart, has collected mobile phones for recycling. This year's proceeds have allowed us to provide water to two schools and their communities at Mount Tshiaberimu. Water is brought from a spring, through pipes, directly to the village of Kisanga. Four water fountains with taps have been installed - one in each school, one in the village and one at the spring. The work was carried out by two water supply experts and was supported by 15 other people. The community provided boards, beams and sand for the construction as well as chlorine for the disinfection of the spring water.

The project provides water to the community, consisting of approximately 250 households, and about 1,000 children in the two schools. Passersby can use the public fountain at the spring. This is very helpful to the community as people now have access to a reliable source of clean water, helping the fight against water-borne diseases such as cholera, diarrhoea and parasitic diseases. As the water arrives directly in the village, collecting water no longer takes up so much of the time of girls and women, who are able to turn their attention to trading, working in the fields or attending school.

Previously, the Kisanga residents had to fetch their water from a spring that was almost a kilometre away, was not fenced and was also used by goats and other livestock. The students of Kyuna and Kisanga had to bring water to school in containers for drinking and to clean the schoolrooms. The Kisanga health centre, which uses a simple farm spring, is no longer crowded with people asking for water.

Every time a new water supply is installed, an event takes place, at which information on the maintenance and possible repairs of the spring and infrastructure are shared. The water users are required to make a small monthly contribution to pay for materials or workers when repairs are needed. Usually, a water supply will continue working for five years without requiring major repairs.

Summary of a report by Claude Sikubwabo Kiyengo

A Larger Classroom
At the school "Institut Mt. Tshiabirimu" a new classroom was also built with the proceeds of the Wilhelma mobile phone collection. The classroom normally has a width of 7 m and a length of 8 m. At that Institute they wanted to get a very large classroom that could serve also as a small church room, so they modified the dimension to 9 m width and 10 m length.

Rotating Sheep and Goats
The Dutch GaiaZOO located in Kerkrade provided support to the wives of trackers by means of the Gaia Nature Fund. The women receive pregnant ewes to look after. Once the lambs are born and have been weaned, the women keep them and pass the ewes on to the wives of other trackers.