Waterloo - Kissi Town
Project Snapshot
Country: Sierra Leone
GPS Coordinates:
Latitude 8.343367
Longitude -13.052267
Impact:
Total Served: 150
Status: Completed (?)
Completion Date (or estimate): 12/30/2010
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committee members. The team and community settled on twenty men and fifteen women who made up the water committee assisting the team with materials and with the water project whenever possible. The majority of community residents sustain a living by farming, trading or fishing and selling their produce at local markets. The
nearest school is located .5 of a kilometer away from the community whose students, teachers and administrative personnel all have access to the new, safe water source. Before leaving the community the team provided community resident Haja Sesay with a LWI contact number incase their well were to fall into disrepair, become subject to vandalism or theft.
The LWI Sierra Leone team had an opportunity to meet with seventeen year old female community resident and local student Mary Kamara who stated, "The distance to the stream is far. The water is not clean. Now it is much closer to get water. It is easier for us. The well is protected and we won't get sick as much."
The LWI Sierra Leone team provided hygiene education for ninety-five adults and eighteen children after completing the pump repair. During the training the following principal issues were addressed: Disease transmission, Germs, Hand Washing- proper techniques and water saving methods, Healthy Unhealthy Communities, Oral Rehydration Solution, Proper care of the pump, Keeping the water clean, Good-bad hygiene behaviors and Disease Transmission Stories. After the hygiene education the team provided eighty-five Oral Rehydration Solution Spoons to resident families. During the hygiene education the team shared with the community how flies transfer germs from people to food after being exposed to feces. The community was shocked to learn of this and decided to cover their food from the flies. At that point, the team addressed open defecation as a contributing factor of disease transmission.
The team then addressed the idea and construction of native toilets. The LWI Sierra Leone has intentions to follow up with this community to see what practices the community has adopted.
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Country Details
Sierra Leone
- Population: 9.7 Million
- Lacking clean water: 47%
- Below poverty line: 70%
- Climate: Tropical; hot, humid; summer rainy season; winter dry season
- Languages: English, Mende, Temne, Krio
- Ethnic Groups: 20 African ethnic groups 90% (Temne 30%, Mende 30%, other 30%), Creole (Krio) 10%
- Life Expectancy: 48 years
- Infant Mortality Rate: 155 deaths per 1000 live births
Partner Profile
Living Water International
Nearly 20 years ago, we set out to help the church in North America be the hands and feet of Jesus by serving the poorest of the poor. 600 million people in the world live on less than $2 a day. 884 million people lack access to safe drinking water.
For all practical purposes, these statistics refer to the same people; around the world, communities are trapped in debilitating poverty because they constantly suffer from water-related diseases and parasites, and/or because they spend long stretches of their time carrying water over long distances.
In response to this need, we implement participatory, community-based water solutions in developing countries. Since we started, we’ve completed water projects for 7,000 communities in 26 countries.
It all began in 1990, when a group from Houston, Texas traveled to Kenya and saw the desperate need for clean drinking water. They returned to Houston and founded a 501(c)3 non-profit. The fledgling organization equipped and trained a team of Kenyan drillers, and LWI Kenya began operations the next year under the direction of a national board.
That pattern continues today; we train, consult, and equip local people to implement solutions in their own countries.
Remembering the life-changing nature of that first trip in 1990, we also lead hundreds of volunteers on mission trips each year, working with local communities, under the leadership of nationals, to implement water projects. It’s hard to know which lives are changed more—those “serving” or those “being served.”
Our training programs in shallow well drilling, pump repair, and hygiene education have equipped thousands of volunteers and professionals in the basics of integrated water solutions since 1997.
