Paul Calvert spoke with Derek Marshal

Paul: Wow, so you are actually saving their life?

Derek: Yes we believe we are seeing lives saved as well as changed.

Paul: In the hospitals do they have the equipment that we would have here in the west?

Derek: No, their hospitals are very poorly equipped. This is another thing we have tried to do: we have a small cottage hospital that we started four to five years ago in the same town. We also work with the local government hospital doing community outreach programmes into surrounding villages. We spend every Monday doing a joint team and our centre, Living Water clinic, pays for staff time and equipment and we go into the villages. I believe last years stats are that we worked with 4,000 people in the nine villages, as well as all the people in our own centres, so we are seeing tremendous returns on the investment.

Paul: So you have these coffee shops in Scotland and the profits that you make you send to Uganda to help these projects.

Derek: That's the aim of the businesses. The businesses are quite young; we have had some money that has come in and gone out through that, but most of the money comes through individuals that we have taken out on teams. We've taken about 80 different individuals from the UK out to Uganda and they become our best advertising when they come back to the UK and raise support.

Paul: What is your philosophy for Africa?

Derek: Our philosophy is to help them help themselves. We don't want to come in and run things on their behalf. We think they have the talent, ability and the training and at times all they need is a leg up to get them started. We see that our role at this time is to encourage them; to give them the infrastructure and to make some resources available, but ultimately its for them to run the show; for them to manage the projects and if they need specialist help we will try and bring it. We see ourselves as facilitators with our friends in Uganda.

Paul: Why do you do what you do?

Derek: I do it because of a Christian conviction. Having been a Christian for many years our Christianity is really based on how we can make life better for people and what difference we can make in our community. I don't come from a strong theological background. I come from hands on community engagement. When I was invited out to Uganda I've seen the same philosophy there and we wanted to make our Christianity very much a reality for everyday life. For me that was by helping change lives and whether that was in education, healthcare, training or whether it was helping former street children that was my Christianity worked out.