August, 2021: Ahmadiya Muslim Primary School Project Complete!

We are excited to share a safe, reliable water point at Ahmadiya Muslim Primary School in Sierra Leone is now providing clean water to students and neighboring community members! We also conducted hygiene and sanitation training, which focused on healthy practices such as handwashing and using latrines.

Musa Kamara (right) with students and another teacher at the rehabbed well.

Kalilu, a 12-year-old student at the school, expressed his gratitude for the rehabilitated well. "Before, we the children were suffering a lot to access safe and pure drinking water, which caused us to practice bad hygiene behavior. Now that we have this water point in our school compound, it will help us to practice good hygiene behavior."

Kalilu speaking at the dedication ceremony.

A teacher at the school, Musa Kamara, expressed similar resolve about the hygiene at the school moving forward. "Before, the children missed most of their lessons in class. Having this water point now will create an impact on our schoolwork, and it will curtail the movement of children and teachers to fetch water. Having this water point will make us practice good hygiene behaviors within the school and in our various homes, and we are going to protect the well from harmful practices."

We dedicated the well to the school in the presence of students, teachers, and local leaders: Ministry of Water Resources Mapping Officer (Osman Fofanah), Port Loko District Council Valuation Officer (Abu Bakarr Bangura), Ministry of Basic and Senior School Secondary Education Inspector of Schools (Philip Alex Kanu), and the Councilor for Ward 236 (Hissan Sillah).

In his contribution, Philip Alex Kanu said, "It is a pleasure to witness the dedication of this water point in Ahmadiya Muslim Primary School. Thank you for this wonderful gesture."

The dedication finished with the students singing and dancing to celebrate the rehabilitated water point.

Clean Water Restored

The drill team arrived the day before beginning work. They set up camp and unpacked all of their tools and supplies to prepare for drilling the next day. The community provided space for the team to store their belongings, along with meals for the duration of their stay. The following day, the work began.

First, we raised the tripod, the structure we use to hold and maneuver each of the drilling tools.

Next, we measured the well's original depth. We then socketed the pipes and installed a casing.

Finally, we lined up the drill rods and started to drill! We reached a final depth of 17 meters with water at 12 meters. The hand-drill method allowed the team to install the cylinder far below the aquifer so that the community has great water access throughout the year.

With drilling complete, we installed screening and a filter pack to keep out debris when the water is pumped. We then cemented an iron rod to the well lining and fixed it with an iron collar at the top. Next, we bailed the well by hand for three days and flushed it, clearing any debris generated by the drilling process. Finally, we tested the yield to ensure the well would provide clean water with minimal effort at the pump.

Bailing.

As the project neared completion, we built a cement platform, walls, and drainage system around the well to seal it off from surface-level contaminants. The drainage system helps to redirect runoff and spilled water to help avoid standing water at the well, which can not only be uncomfortable but unhygienic and a breeding ground for disease-carrying mosquitoes.

At last, we installed the stainless steel India Mk11 pump and conducted a water quality test. The test results showed that this is clean water fit for drinking!

New Knowledge

Before conducting any hygiene training, we made repeated phone calls and visits to the local water user committee to better understand the community’s challenges and lack of sanitation facilities. We shared the findings from our discussions with the committee members to help them make the necessary adjustments before the training began. For example, we identified households without handwashing stations or ones that may need to repair their latrines. With this information, community members worked together to improve hygiene and sanitation at home.

After this preparatory period, we scheduled a time when members from each household using the water point could attend a multi-day hygiene and sanitation training. We then dispatched our teams to the agreed-upon location to hold the meeting.

Training topics covered included handwashing and tippy taps, good and bad hygiene habits, disease transmission and prevention, worms and parasites, dental hygiene, proper care of the well's pump, keeping the water clean, the cost recovery system, dish racks and clotheslines, the importance of toilets, keeping latrines clean, balanced diets, the diarrhea doll, and HIV and AIDS.

The topic of hygiene spurred a good deal of discussion among the teachers, who admitted they had not been doing all they could to keep the school environment clean. One teacher offered to lead the hygiene committee in an effort to resolve the problem moving forward.

"The knowledge from this training has helped enlighten us about the importance of some practices we thought were never important, like taking care of our latrines," said Abdulia Bangura, a teacher at the school. "Or good practices that were being ignored due to cultural and traditional beliefs, like restricting our children from eating fish and eggs, claiming that it will make them sick."

When the facilitators brought out the mosquito net, a female teacher said that she was confused about how to properly sleep using a mosquito net. She demonstrated how she had been using her bed net, which was to sleep under it (using it as a blanket). Everyone laughed. The facilitators demonstrated the net's proper use, after which the teacher agreed that she understood.

But she was not the only teacher with misconceptions. For instance, many teachers gave their views about what causes malaria: bedbugs, contaminated food and water, and eating oranges. Some teachers gaped in astonishment to learn malaria's cause is an infected mosquito bite. They asked many questions.

One teacher, upon learning this, noted that their school compound is a breeding point for mosquitoes, and his colleagues agreed. They promised to prevent mosquitoes from breeding by getting rid of stagnant waters in the school and community.

"All my life, I had never known the dangers of malaria until during this training," Abdulai continued. "The importance of dish racks and clotheslines were also measured, and by putting to practice all that we have learned from this training and taking the message to our homes and community, we will achieve a healthy school environment and community at large."

Thank you for making all of this possible!

July, 2021: Ahmadiya Muslim Primary School project underway!

A severe clean water shortage in Ahmadiya Muslim Primary School drains students' time, energy, and health. Thanks to your generosity, we’re working to install a clean water point and much more.

Get to know this school through the introduction and pictures we’ve posted, and read about this water, sanitation, and hygiene project. We look forward to reaching out with more good news!