300+ students need water at Prophecy Primary School in Sierra Leone

Help these students gain access to clean, reliable water in celebration of World Water Day on March 22nd.

Welcome to the School

Prophecy Primary School employs seven teachers and can get quite noisy with its 305 students. Without Prophecy Primary in Sankoya community, children would have to walk extraordinary distances elsewhere.

There is no electricity or running water. There are three classrooms and a space for the headmaster’s office. Each classroom is split for two classes, facing opposite directions.

Classrooms at Prophecy Primary School

Water Situation

There is a hand-dug well on school grounds which supports students with their cleaning, hand-washing, and drinking needs. They always carry a bucket back home at the end of the day because there isn’t another clean water source in their part of Sankoya. In fact, the entire community relies on the school’s well.

However, this well is unreliable. The dry season lasts for months at a time and negatively impacts the water table here.

The well is dry for the entire month of March (just in time for World Water Day!), forcing people to walk all the way to the other side of the village to find water. One of the water sources they end up at is a cloudy, murky swamp.

Alternative water source – a murky swamp

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Clean water is so important to these people, and especially these students. It’s not only used to sate thirst but to curb hunger for students who don’t have lunch. Children miss class in search of water to drink.

Ansanatu Kamara is in the 5th grade at Prophecy Primary. She said, “I do not feel good. I drink water a lot when the place is hot and also when I am hungry. So when it is not available, I don’t pay attention in class. I would often escape from class to find water to drink because some teachers would deny you permission to go out frequently.”

Sanitation Situation

The only latrine is in the headteacher’s area. There are two open pits for students. The school has put up palm fronds around the pits to keep the kids from falling inside. Because of the lack of finished facilities, kids practice open defecation around the school.

Unfinished student latrines

Our Plans

Hygiene & Sanitation Training

There will be hygiene and sanitation training sessions offered for three days in a row.

After our visit, the hygiene and sanitation trainer decided it would be best to teach gather students, teachers, and community members together at the school. They will teach about good and bad hygiene, penning in animals, and building good tools like hand-washing stations and dish racks. Most importantly, the trainer will emphasize the importance of having and using even basic pit latrines.

A Reliable Water Well

We are planning to drill down an additional 30 or more feet to make this a water source that lasts through all seasons. The pump will be removed, and we either drill from the top or a man will be lowered inside with a hand auger. This hand auger will allow the team to drill several meters deeper to hit a sufficient water column that will ensure the well supplies water throughout the drier seasons.

Once this plan is implemented, everyone within the school and surrounding community will have access to safe drinking water in both quality and quantity, even through the dry months.

You can donate directly to this project to help us provide a reliable source of clean, safe water and proper hygiene and sanitation training. We hope you’ll join us.

Donate to This Project!