The International High School For Science & Technology was constructed by Mohamed Kanu, a professor and a caring parent who saw the need for better quality education, beginning in 2016. It is situated on an acre of land owned by Mr. Kanu in Lungi. Mr Kanu is a native of this community and acquired this plot of land to help improve the lives of the people in the community. He saw a need for students to embark on the sciences as a course of study.
The school is located in the middle of the community with houses surrounding in all directions. The school opened its doors for enrollment in 2018 and has grown from 5 students when it started to more than 150 today. But it is being held back by the lack of water at the school.
Students must travel to the nearest community well which takes about 15 minutes to reach by walking. It is a hand-dug well that serves as the main water point for the nearby community, so it is often over-crowded. The stress on the point causes the water recharge rate to slow significantly which can make fetching water take even longer.
Because of the crowds, students at the school try to go when there are fewer people - which means in the middle of the school day. As a result, the time that the students are meant to spend in class is used fetching water. Headgirl Mabinty is in charge of picking the students who go to get the water from the well every day. She usually picks the two students who arrive at school last as a form of punishment for being late to school.
"They go to the water source and most times they only come back after spending hours. I am supposed to follow them but it also takes away from my class and study time. I should not have to miss class to supervise fetching water," she said.
What we can do:
New Well
We will be drilling this well at International High School For Science & Technology. This project will relieve the people here of their water challenges.
Our team will drive over the LS200 mud rotary drill rig and set up camp for a couple of nights. Once the well is drilled to a sufficient water column, it will be cased, developed, and then tested. If these tests are positive, our mechanics will install a new India Mark II pump.
This community has been pushed to open, contaminated well for their water. By drilling this borehole, Tholmossor Community will be provided with plenty of accessible clean drinking water.
Training
There will be hygiene and sanitation training sessions offered for three days in a row.
Community members will learn how to make a handsfree handwashing station called the "tippy-tap." We will use these tippy taps for handwashing demonstrations, and will also teach about other tools like dish racks and the importance of properly penning in animals. We will highlight the need to keep latrines clean, among many other topics.
These trainings will also strengthen a water user committee that will manage and maintain this new well. They will enforce proper behavior and report to us whenever they need our help solving a serious problem, like a pump breakdown.