October, 2018: A Year Later: Kafunka Community

A year ago, your generous donation enabled us to restore water to Kafunka Community. The contributions of incredible monthly donors and others giving directly to The Water Promise allow our local teams to visit project sites throughout the year, strengthening relationships with communities and evaluating the water project over time. These consistent visits allow us to learn vital lessons and hear amazing stories. Read more...

October, 2017: Kafunka Community Project Complete

Kafunka Community, Sierra Leone now has a well that provides clean water throughout the year, thanks to your donation! Hundreds of people are no longer stranded without clean water during the dry months. Hygiene and sanitation training was also conducted, which focused on healthy practices such as washing hands and using latrines. This water and new knowledge give the community a great foothold in eliminating water and sanitation-related illness. Please enjoy this update detailing all of the work that was done in Kafunka Community, and be sure to check out the tons of new pictures!

Thank You for unlocking potential in this community. You made clean water a reality, and now you have a chance to make sure it keeps flowing. Join our team of monthly donors and help us, our caretakers, and our mechanics maintain this well and hundreds of other projects!

Project Result: New Knowledge

The community headman and imam worked on recruiting as many people as possible to attend the hygiene and sanitation training. The people here are fond of social events, so we didn't have an issue with attendance. Over 100 people met us under a tree at Mr. Momoh's compound, most of which were adults.

Some of the topics covered during training were as follows:

– How to wash hands, and how to build a hand-washing station from a jerrycan, string, sticks, and netting

– Good and bad hygiene practices

– Dish racks and how to build them

– Keeping animals under control

– Management and maintenance of the hand pump

There was also a demonstration where the trainer washed her dirty hands in front of the crowd. She used a bowl of clean water and after washing her hands, the clean water in the bowl turned brown. She showed the participants and asked them what they observed, and they answered saying that the color of the water had changed. The facilitator told them that our hands are always unclean, even though we may not take it into consideration. We are always vulnerable to germs, and need to keep clean by practicing good personal hygiene. This set us up for a strong transition into how to make the hand-washing stations.

Men and women working together to build hand-washing stations.

Diagrams portraying unhealthy practices such as walking barefoot, open defecation, outdoor urination, and eating with unwashed hands were all shown and discussed in groups. What behaviors make a community healthy, and what others are counterproductive?

Children helping our trainer by holding up signs illustrating good and bad hygiene behaviors.

Community members surprised us by implementing what they learned immediately after training. For example on the first day, we taught about dish racks. By the next day of training, almost everyone had built their own dish rack.

A new dish rack that was constructed during training.

Famata is a 24-year-old new mother who learned a lot of things that will help her and her baby. She was so impressed, exclaiming that "Ignorance is a killer disease! Because I lacked the hygiene knowledge, I often breast fed my child without taking precaution. Even when from farm sweating with my dirty hands, I just fed her without cleaning myself. But with the hygiene training, I have learnt that I should regularly take care of my breasts whenever I want to breast feed my child! I used the same clothes throughout the day, and the same I used during the night. But thanks to the hygiene team, I am now going to practice personal hygiene."

Mrs. Fatmata Bangera

Project Result: A Reliable Water Well

We spearheaded a new method of converting the bottom of a hand-dug well into a borehole. When we started this process, the well was at 56 feet deep with two feet of water.

The team set up the tripod and pulley over the well. Depending on the diameter of the well, the team would either drill from inside the well or from ground level. The team worked from ground level here in Kafunka; they’ve resorted to this method the last couple of projects, and now prefer to work out in the open instead of being confined inside the well.

Setting up the tripod and pulley system that aids the drilling process.

First, they installed 6″ PVC casing through the hatch cover down to the bottom of the well. This ensured that the drilling began and continued straight and also kept the hole from collapsing. They connected the bucket auger drill bit to the drilling rod and lowered it into the well, continuing to add more drill rods until they hit the bottom. Each drill rod was 18 feet in length and every time the team emptied the bucket auger, they reversed the process by disconnecting the rods until the drill bit could be emptied. This method was more labor intensive, but working from the top was much safer in this circumstance. There were different drill bits for different conditions, a special bit just for clay, one for sand, one for rocks and one combination bit for all three conditions.

Emptying clay from the drill bit.

The team met lots of different colors of clay, continuing to drill with hopes that they'd pass through the clay. Clay is useful for a lot of things, but doesn't let water pass through it easily. There was still clay at 88 feet, so the team decided to stop.

15 feet of casing was slotted for screen, locating the top at 60 feet and the bottom at 75 feet. Seven buckets of filter pack were poured between the two casings. The team could then hoist out the temporary casing.

Iron rods were cemented into the well lining and attached to the casing to support the weight of the PVC and keep it straight from bottom to top. The team welded a collar in the pump base to further support the casing.

The well was developed by bailing; two men bailed by hand for four days to ensure proper development. The well could then be tested by installing a submersible pump at 80 feet and using it for one hour. The team measured the discharge, which was 520 gallons. The static water level of 54 feet only dropped to 58 feet, and it took about 10 minutes to recharge. We were able to calculate that this well thus has a yield of 32 liters per minute. The team had been discouraged after meeting so much clay, but were encouraged with this yield. A hand pump can only yield 20 liters a minute, anyways!

A submersible pump was used for flushing and testing the well.

With this success, we could build a new walled well pad and install the new stainless steel hand-pump. The only problem is that it’s been so rainy, we haven’t been able to paint the well pad yet – it will be white with logos for Mariatu’s Hope and The Water Project on its walls.

A community member looks on as mechanics install the pump.

Mr. Momoh Sesay was there to celebrate with the rest of his community. He said, "I have spent most of my lifetime in this village and I have never seen this kind of quality water like the one now coming out of this new safe water source. After the hand-dug well was constructed and later got spoiled, our source of drinking water has been the swamp. We have been drinking from the swamp water until this time when our well has been rehabilitated. At the moment, we are so happy for the completion of the project. Though I am an old man, I believe that my children and grandchildren will also have to benefit greatly from this new safe drinking water."

October, 2017: Kafunka Community Project Underway

Kafunka Community will soon have a source of safe and clean water that works year round, thanks to your generous donation. A well that is dry for almost half the year is being deepened, and a new pump installed. The community will also receive training in sanitation and hygiene. Imagine the difference these resources will make for this community!

We just posted an initial report from our partner in the field including an introduction to the community, maps, and pictures. We’ll keep you updated as the work progresses.

Thank You for caring for the thirsty!