Bonnie Bzdok, a Little Falls native, established Resilient Uganda in 2014 after a 14-month teaching stint in Kisoro, Uganda. She saw the desperate need for not only jobs but clean water as well. Over the past five years, she’s worked with the Ugandan people in various villages to build water tanks along with helping women start small businesses making crafts. In 2018, she received a One-World Mission grant to launch another water project. Bonnie will share more about her work and the outcome of the grant during an “enlunchment” on May 8.
In her gentle way, Bonnie brings together the entire village to work side-by-side on the project. Local masons are hired to build the tank; women are employed as porters to haul the sand and bricks necessary for building. This income is incredibly helpful to them as is the long-term objective of clean water close by. Access to harvested rainwater improves lives in so many ways. Women and girls walk for hours to fetch water. A sufficient water supply keeps them safe in their village and enables the girls to spend more time in school.
Sister Maurita Bernet has known Bonnie since she was a baby and said in her letter of support, “The dignity and equality being developed within the women and the communities of this very poor region of Uganda connect beautifully and powerfully with the vision of One-World Mission. Working for access to clean water is essential to life, and Bonnie’s commitment and vision speak to the OWM concept that all may have life and have it to the full."
In the rainy season, hundreds of people will fetch water from this 20,000-liter tank while it is being regularly replenished. In the dry season, it will be rationed and serve the immediate compound of approximately 50 people.
