Melissa. Sustainable.

View my profile in PDF format, with clickable links:  Melissa Kyeyune Communications Profile 2020

Writer- Melissa Kyeyune | NGO- Water For People | Country- Uganda | SDG- Goal 6, Clean Water and Sanitation | Year- 2017 | SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation | For about a month now, Eric has come home from school every day to find his mother Anne talking to a different neighbor from their village of Okidoi in Soroti District. Today he has just completed his Primary Leaving Examinations and should perhaps be celebrating with the other children, but he has rushed home, set his schoolbag down and slipped easily into his mother’s negotiations. This is his favorite part of the day. “The satopans are fifteen thousand shillings,” he tells the neighbor, with a big smile. His mother nods at him to continue engaging this prospective customer, while she goes and talks to another one who has just arrived on his bicycle. Eric continues to make the sale enthusiastically, “Once the satopan is in your latrine, you will no longer have flies. There will be no bad smell!” The customers...

Writer- Melissa Kyeyune | NGO- Water For People | Country- Uganda | SDG- Goal 6, Clean Water and Sanitation | Year- 2017 | SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation | A piece of Ignatious Epuwat’s company SANQUA Engineering can be found in almost every rural home in Asuret sub county, Soroti district. Originally providing generic construction material, the company was identified and mentored to start offering sanitation products and services under Water For People’s ‘Sanitation As A Business’ approach. The partnership went beyond training. “Water For People gave us a lot of our startup stock,” Ignatious says. This stock includes ring liners, concrete slabs and Sato pans to for improving latrines. SANQUA Engineering has now cornered the market in Asuret and sells products daily to retailers, masons and other individuals. “All 300 of the initial satopans that we were provided with under SAAB, have been bought. That is a huge achievement for us.” Under the SAAB approach, Water Fo...

Writer- Melissa Kyeyune | NGO- Water For People | Country- Uganda | SDG- Goal 6, Clean Water and Sanitation | Year- 2017 | SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation | Francis Edilu is a farmer with an impressive business card. The words ‘agric-consultancy’ are emphasized on it, because he is ready to give advice to farmers who want to enter the same chili business he is a part of. Currently he grows chili in Okidoi village then sells it to a middleman who finds market for it throughout Soroti district. The fruits of his labor are evident in the concrete house he has built for his wife of one year, and their young son. Inside, a small color television shows the latest Nigerian film. Clearly, Francis is someone that other farmers would like to seek business advice from. There is one unlikely person, however, who might have given him the best advice ever- his grandmother Alleluya, who lives a short walk away from the young couple. One month ago, Alleluya told her grandson that his...

Writer- Melissa Kyeyune | NGO- Water For People | Country- Uganda | SDG- Goal 6, Clean Water and Sanitation | Year- 2017 | SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation | Anthony Olupot has fixed hundreds of latrines over the years, but when asked how many households in Soroti district he has transformed, he replies, “The last three.” This is because in the last three homes that Anthony has worked on, he applied all the knowledge he had acquired from a recent training by Water For People. “Water For People came and taught us how to build improved and safe latrines.” Under the ‘Sanitation As A Business’ approach, Water For People identifies community engineers and masons such as Anthony to provide sanitation services to households, while also creating demand for these services. Water For People aims to cost-effectively move people up the sanitation ladder using a sanitation as a business industry facilitation approach. The results will be to assist rural households to improve sanit...

Writer- Melissa Kyeyune | NGO- Water For People | Country- Uganda | SDG- Goal 6, Clean Water and Sanitation | Year- 2017 | SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation | When Jacinta Bujune speaks, everyone listens. All 120 of them. As the chairperson of Ashawo II Savings Group, Soroti District she not only sensitizes the 31 members of her savings group about sanitation, but also ensures that the same message reaches three other savings groups. Under the Sanitation As A Business approach, Water For People identifies community leaders such as Jacinta, to create demand for sanitation goods and services which are then provided by community wholesalers and engineers. Jacinta herself was empowered by Water For People. At her home, the cement slab in her latrine was cracked rendering the whole structure unsafe. Also there were flies and the bad smells associated with most latrines. She was advised by Water For People to acquire a WASH loan from partner financial institution- Post Bank. S...

Writer- Melissa Kyeyune | NGO- Water For People | Country- Uganda | SDG- Goal 6, Clean Water and Sanitation | Year- 2017 | SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation | It is 4:30 pm in the Soroti Branch of Post Bank. In the front office, a wife reminds her husband of their surname as he fills in a form, while a backpacking tourist explains to a clerk that he has to be in Tanzania the next morning. The lines are long and the conversations are many. But tucked away behind the main building is the more tranquil ‘Loans Section’. Here, clients bow their heads in concentration, quietly looking over forms explaining the loan they are about to take out. Most are farmers from the surrounding villages. They speak in lowered voices, asking the woman with a warm smile what the questions mean. Scovia Akoth, the Group Lending Credit Officer is always ready to answer any query, and she loves her job. “I used to work in the front office and then I was moved here. I love it here in the Loans Section,...