August, 2019: Tholmossor, Amputee Camp Project Complete!

We are excited to share that there is a safe, reliable water point at the Amputee Camp in Tholmossor, Sierra Leone that is already providing clean water to students and neighboring community members! Hygiene and sanitation training was also conducted at the school, which focused on healthy practices such as washing hands and using latrines.

Clean Water Restored

Before the team left for this community, a call was made to the section chief to inform him of their move and terms for hosting the crew were briefly discussed. This made it very easy for the team to settle in because, by the time they reached the camp, steps were already executed to prepare for their stay. The community lodged them in one of the houses located about fifteen meters from the well. All materials and equipment were packed in and the team got on the job the next day.

Here is how we restored clean, reliable water here:

1. Raised the tripod

2. Found the original depth (for this well, we measured 51 feet)

3. Socketed the pipes

4. Installed casing

5. Lined up the drill rods

6. Drilled!

The team lined up the drilling rods and the drilling bits. They lowered a man down the well to help with guarding the pipe at its appropriate position to prevent any damage. Next, they connected the drill bit to the drilling rods and started drilling. The first layer was sandy and therefore needed the short drill bit. The team used this to add 14 feet to the original 51 feet, increasing the total depth to 65 feet.

The same sand bit was installed to drill but the drill bit got stock down the well. This was the beginning of a gruesome day for the team. Different techniques, including the services of the winch, were employed to pull the bit up, but to avail. This went on for more than 3.5 hours that day. Not much progress with regards to adding further depth to the hole was made that day. After the exhaustive task of getting the drill bit out of the hole, they managed to add only 2 feet to the total depth that day. The total depth now reached 67 feet.

The team never wanted to go through the same experience as when the short drill bit got stock down the well the other day. As a response, therefore, they installed the long sand bit to add a further 9 feet to the total depth, improving the total depth to an encouraging 76 feet. They decided to stop the drilling at this depth because they were confident that at this depth the well will provide as much water as would serve the community year-round.

7. Installed screening and filter pack

8. Cemented an iron rod to well lining, and fixed it with an iron collar at the top

9. Bailed the well by hand for 3 days and flushed it

10. Tested the yield

11. Built a cement platform, walls, and drainage system

12. Installed a stainless steel India Mk11 pump

The hand-drill method allows the team to install the cylinder far below the aquifer so that the community has great water access throughout the year.

13. Water quality test

Dedication

After all of the work was done, our team notified the community members and school of the dedication ceremony to mark the completion of the project. People were already in a celebratory mood before the team arrived. Traditional singing and dancing were a welcoming scene when we got there. People produced musical sounds out of any object they could lay their hands on.

The Councilor Celebrating with Community Members

The councilor of this WARD, Mr. Abu Bakarr Koroma, was also part of the celebration and was called upon to deliver a wonderful speech. His speech was a message of gratitude to the donors and the organization. He assured the team that he will ensure that the facility and any other ones in his WARD are properly managed. He ended by blessing the donors and the organization.

Two women, Fatmata Sillah and Adama B. Freeman also sent out a message of gratitude to the donors and the organization. Adama B. Freeman, in particular, emphasized her size and explained how she used to fall with water on her head while carrying it from farther distances. Today, she is free from her troubles. She was very grateful for that.

At the end of their speeches, people broke into another round of singing and dancing with the councilor himself leading the group. The people were even more than happy and they did everything to show how grateful they were for this facility.

New Knowledge

Our team built the training plan on the findings of the baseline survey. Lessons were selected based on the prevailing situation found in the community and topics were therefore arranged to meet their needs accordingly. This meant working to come up with topics and lessons that would help positively change the bad hygiene practices observed during the baseline survey.

Participants were recruited in the community via phone messages through members of the water committee and the section chief. Expectations were that every household sends at least 1 representative. Whenever the team arrived here, the sound of the megaphone was enough to alert people of their presence.

The training was colored with the involvement of the Child Health Club attending the St. Ann’s Primary School located in the same community. Some of the kids are the children of some of the amputees and their presence was a huge boost to the level of attendants and the participation level.

Training topics covered included:

- Handwashing and tippy tap
- Good and bad hygiene
- Healthy and unhealthy community
- Diseases transmission story
- Dishracks and clotheslines
- Worms and parasites
- Proper care of the teeth
- Proper care of the pump
- Keeping the water clean
- The cost recovery system
- The importance of toilets
- Keeping the latrine clean
- Balanced diets
- Diarrhea doll
- HIV and AIDS

The kids taught the lessons on oral hygiene, malaria, cholera, diarrhea, oral rehydration salts, and the disease transmission story. The community members were very much instrumental in the presentations on handwashing and tippy taps. In effect all participants were involved in the training, making it a very interactive event.

"I never knew that sleeping with our animals under the same roof is hygienically bad. Now that we have learned about this, I don’t think some of us will ever risk doing that anymore," Sulaiman Kargbo said.

During the training, the body language of the participants showed their guilt in not keeping their water clean. To the trainers, this was a positive sign of comprehension and the unconscious display of “we will change this habit” in body language. This was very special.

Thank you for making all of this possible!

June, 2019: Tholmossor, Amputee Camp Project Underway

Dirty water from the swamp is making people in Tholmossor Community sick. Thanks to your generosity, we’re working to solve this issue by restoring clean, reliable water to a well and much more.

Get to know this community through the narrative and pictures we’ve posted, and read about this water, sanitation, and hygiene project. We look forward to reaching out again with news of success!