Rehabilitation Project
This particular community is known as Monkey Bush and is found in the
western rural area of Sierra Leone. Most people in the community earn a
living by teaching,
petty trade, carpentry and farming. The primary school, where the
project took place, serves 286 students - 137 boys and 149 girls.
The school in Monkey Bush had a well at one time. But like thousands
of others throughout Sierra Leone, this one was basically useless. So
many wells were lost or destroyed in the decades long civil war that
ravaged this country. Little chance of finding clean and safe water
remains for many, and the students of Miracle Praise certainly didn't
expect to find it either.
That's when our partner showed up and offered to fix this well and
restore a measure of hope to this school.
The old "well" (the hole
in the ground) was actually not too bad. "It doesn’t dry up,"
according to our implementing partner. The problem was, the pump was
gone - broken and abandon. Left open, it rendered this water source
unsafe as the open well was easily contaminated.
One of the teachers, 25 year old Saffiatu, told the team that many of
the students who drank from the open pit well suffered from diarrhea, a
dangerous illness out in the rural countryside.
She went on to
say, once the well was repaired, "This
closed well with a hand pump is clean and safer than the open well.
People were worried about the children falling into the open well. Thank
you for helping us!"
The community helped out with the project by providing labor. The
old pump was pulled and a new Afridev pump was installed. The top was
sealed with concrete and the water disinfected. When the project was
complete, the community established a point person to be the caretaker
of the well.
This local ownership, involvement and management will help ensure the
project lasts a very long time. It's a team effort. We're committed to
seeing that these wells last. We work to ensure that our implementing
partners intend to stick around and make sure proper follow up and
reporting is done.
Access to clean, safe water is a critical first step. And so is
proper sanitation and hygiene. So, the entire community participated
with the children in a sanitation and hygiene seminar where they learned
the basics of keeping the well, their bodies and their homes clean.
This
training dramatically improves the outcomes of water projects.
Combining clean, safe water with safer hygiene practices can have a
dramatic effect on people's health.
When the project was complete, the entire school and community
gathered around to celebrate and give thanks. The smiles tell it all.
Access to safe, clean water is just the beginning for these students.
Today they are able to spend more time in class, less time in bed
sick, and a hope of breaking the cycle of poverty has been born.
