I am always on the lookout for simple and inexpensive ways to help folks in the villages to improve their standard of living. This includes the following areas: clean water, seeds, small farm animals, solar lights, solar water heating, etc.

The key to any help project is that it must be sustainable and maintainable. If it is not sustainable, something that will continue to produce month after month, then in it is probably not worth the effort. If a project is subject to easy wear out and breakdown, it must be repairable by the folks in the village with resources they have in the village or have been supplied for them along with instructions on how to repair it. I was told there are as many as 800 water wells (boreholes) in Uganda that not longer provide water and many only need something as simple as a new pump handle or a simple 0 ring to put it back into service.

So if you want to truly help, do so with something that will "keep on keeping on" without having to fly a repairman from the other side of the earth to repair it.

The items below have been found to be helpful. I would greatly appreciate your suggestions for additions to this section.

Solar Lighting The "Light My Shed" solar light provides up to 4 hours of light each night. This saves candles and paraffin (kerosene) and is safer. There are cheaper lights but these are LED which use less power so the charge on the battery lasts much longer. Secure installation is necessary.