Students with the COVE (Children’s Outreach and Vocational Education) Alliance registered student organization (RSO) at the University of Illinois recently launched an Indiegogo to raise $2,500 for a 10,000 gallon water tank to support the expansion of the St. Jerome COVE Center, a school for orphaned and disadvantaged youth in Kapeeka, Uganda.
The RSO is working with the non-profit COVE Alliance to raise awareness about water initiatives through this campaign. In April, the students invited and hosted the executive director of the nonprofit Father Hilary Muheezangagno, from Uganda to present a public talk titled “Peace and Education: The Way to a Transformed Community.”
Currently, the children at the school go to a borehole to pump water everyday to fill their jerry cans. Other than catching rain water, this is the only source of water on the campus. There are three rainwater tanks on the campus that supply water for the health clinic, dorm, and a classroom. However, the community is expanding with a new dorm and 6th and 7th grade classrooms, and an additional tank would supply 100 more children and staff with their water needs. In order to meet increasing water needs COVE wants to construct a 10,000 gallon water tank (cost of buying and transporting is $2,500) that will be fed by rainwater.
Learn more and support the campaign here.