Here’s a recap from the past two days of building in Sakpalua! Enjoy!
[vimeo 91384875 w=500 h=280]
Author: communitywatersolutions
Solar in Sakpalua!
Anula (good evening) from Ghana!
Sam and I arrived in Tamale on Thursday and got straight to work on our 3rd solar business pilot in the village of Sakpalua!
Sakpalua is a rural village of about 500-600 people located about an hour outside of Tamale. We first started working in this community in April 2012 when the Spring Fellows implemented a water business with Lydia and Dama, two awesome water entrepreneurs. Over the past two years, these two ladies have been working extremely hard and as a result, the water business as been a huge success! Lydia and Dama are able to solve most problems on their own and run their water business with little to no assistance from the CWS staff. Since Sakpalua is not on a main road, they will not have access to electricity anytime in the near future. They were the perfect choice for our next solar pilot!
Sam, Shak and I arrived in Sakpalua on Saturday morning for our first meeting with the chief and elders. We learned that most families in the village were using kerosene lamps for light, but many have stopped due the the high price of kerosene. These lamps are not only extremely hazardous to health, but are also horrible for the environment. However, there are limited options other than kerosene and most families have no light in their home once the sun goes down. Many people have cell phones, but must travel all the way to Tamale and pay high prices to charge them. The chief and elders were thrilled to hear about the solar-business idea and couldn’t wait to get started!
After returning from the village, Shak taught Sam and I how to assemble Burro’s solar Genset. The system has worked really well in Kurugu Vohoyili and we are excited to continue our partnership with Burro in this next pilot! Shak has learned so much about solar power since his first pilot with Ben and Mark in Wambong and was a fabulous teacher!
Today we started building the structure for the solar business. We used all local materials found in the village and almost 50 people came out to help build! Tomorrow we put on the roof, plaster the walls and then will bring the solar panels on Monday!
-Kate
Meet Chelsea, CWS’ New Ghana Country Director!
Next fall, after two great years working for CWS in Ghana, Brianan will be heading to Ireland for Graduate School. We could not be more proud of her or more grateful for all of the work that she has done for CWS! We are also very excited to welcome Chelsea Hodgkins to our team who will be taking over as Ghana Country Director this summer!
We first got to know Chelsea when she came in Ghana as a 2012 Spring Fellow. I think it’s safe to say that Chelsea fell in love with this amazing country because she quickly returned to Ghana to study abroad for a semester and is now back again for 9 months as a Fulbright Fellow! We’ve really enjoyed getting to know Chelsea throughout her time in Ghana and are thrilled to officially have her on the CWS team next year! Without futher ado, meet Chelsea:
I’ll begin this post in the same way Kathryn, Brianan, and Sam all began theirs: by expressing my enthusiasm and joy to be joining the CWS team as the Ghana Country Director this June! I feel incredibly privileged that my first ‘real’ job out of university is to work with such an amazing, dynamic organization impacting the lives of thousands of Ghanaians and US college students/young professionals.
I graduated from West Virginia University with a dual Bachelor of Arts in Geography and International Studies with a concentration in International Development. Prior to taking part in the fellowship program in April 2012, I had vague thoughts of pursuing a career in international development; after a month-long program studying climate change and livelihood systems in Malawi with WVU’s Geography department, I knew that being in the field and working collaboratively to solve challenges that would improve the lives of others was exactly what I wanted to do with my life. I had yet to find a specific area of development where I felt I could make the biggest contribution. That all changed over the three weeks I spent in Ghana with CWS.
I can still remember how emotionally jarred I was when I and my teammates Rich, Colleen and Nick entered Sakpalua with Shak for the first time and saw the community’s water source: a dugout shared by livestock and community members alike, heavily contaminated with fecal matter and so turbid one could not see an object submerged an inch under the water. Going back and forth every day between the bustling streets of Tamale to the more tranquil setting of Sakpalua to implement the water treatment business was exhilarating. Opening day was one of the most amazing, fulfilling and rewarding experiences of my life: as I watched the line grow of people waiting to
fill their blue buckets for the first, of many times to come, I saw two pregnant women heading back to their homes, carrying the clean water on their heads. Their children would be the first generation to have access to clean water and all of the health benefits that it brings. It was an ‘aha’ moment for me, as I realized that water is the most fundamental key to living a life of dignity. When I went back to the US, I left Ghana knowing that CWS was an organization I wanted to stay a part of because the work that the team does is really serving a critical need.
Since the fellowship, I have been very fortunate to have had more than one opportunity to return to Ghana. Each time I have visited Lydia and Damu, the women entrepreneurs that are running the business I helped establish in Sakpalua. During every visit, I am reminded of how CWS is providing sustainable, not ‘band-aid,’ solutions to the water crisis in Ghana when I am told by Lydia and Damu of how much the treatment center has improved the health of everyone in Sakpalua and how grateful everyone is to have clean water. And there are thousands of more stories like this from each of the communities where CWS has established centers! I cannot describe how truly excited I am to work with everyone at CWS and how much I am looking forward to June!
– Chelsea
Voices from the Field: Team TJ
Greetings from Emily, Sara, Thalia and Alex aka team TJ!! TJ is our friend and translator, also known as T to the J, Teeg, or 2Chainz. For the past two weeks we have been implementing a shared water treatment center that will serve Kuldanali, a village of 58 households and Yapalsi, a smaller village of 25 households. Both use the Volta River as their water source, which we have found to be contaminated with E. coli among other things. Our two most recent visits to the two villages have been for opening day as well as the first day of monitoring.
Our opening day, in which water sales officially began, was a huge success. With over a 90% household turnout it was clear that the two villages were excited about their new access to clean water. The day began as we viewed the first group of women walk down the hill towards the treatment center with their staple CWS blue buckets. It was encouraging for us to see their excitement in the impending purchase of clean water. The enthusiasm spread across generations—middle-aged mothers arrived confidently balancing the safe storage containers on their heads and small girls ran down with multiple buckets. We were extremely impressed by the confidence in our three women entrepreneurs – Florence and Akweeya from Kuldanali and Adamoo from Yapalsi. The day began somewhat hectically as this was their first day as business owners. While it was somewhat chaotic for the initial sales, the women entrepreneurs quickly organized the process along with the assistance of the young girls who washed the safe storage containers. From then on the business owners meshed together as they successfully distributed the day’s worth of buckets.
We were thankful to have our first day off after our opening day! We ventured to the Fuller Waterfalls with TJ and attended a lively concert in the evening.
We were enthusiastically greeted by our women entrepreneurs upon arriving at the water center—this was easily the most excitement we have seen from them so far. Our team got a strong sense that the women were taking ownership of the center. As we asked them questions about their sales they beamed and seemed confident about the future of their business. After visiting the center, we started our first day of monitoring. We visited 13 households, all of which were using the safe storage container correctly and were enthused about their access to clean water. As we monitored, there were a few leaky buckets between the two villages but they were quick fixes by TJ. It was fun to chat with each household and ask them about what they thought of the taste of their new water.
Voices from the Field: Team Amin
It is crazy for us, a group of American college students, to think that for years the small village called Namdu 2 has been without a source of clean drinking water. We have now traveled to Namdu 2 for four days working to implement another CWS site.
Since our first visit, the village has been excited for a future of good health due to the water treatment center. Jimmy led the chief meeting and community meeting and got a good response from all involved. However we are still not sure if the chief is more excited about the clean water or the chance that one of these days we might bring him gin. but more to come on that.
You are probably wondering how we have gotten our equipment out to the village thus far. It’s definitely an African art to fit one taxi driver, one translator, three girls, 6’4″ Jimmy, plus the equipment in the taxi for our 1.5 hour drive. But Implementation must go on, and to date we have successfully taken our blue drums and polytank stand out to Namdu 2. game on Ghana!
With the exception of a few children who have run away screaming, the community has responded well to our presence. I think that from their point of view, everyday has a little bit of comedy from us, whether it be them laughing at our “work in progress” Dagbani, trying to carry water on our heads, or trying to play American classics (duck duck goose, Simon says, etc.)
We are excited for the days to come. We will train the women, distribute safe storage containers, and prepare for opening day, improving our Dagbani and farmers tans along the way. Namdu and CWS will now forever hold a place in our hearts. Who knows maybe the four of us will come back with Namdu tattooed on our arms (they could probably do that for us.) Each day we are excited to immerse ourselves in this village and see all the faces of Nambu on opening day.
Voices from the Field: Team Nestor
Yesterday was our second day in our village, Guremancheyili. Just the day before, we went to the village and met with the chief and elders to explain what Community Water Solutions is and our vision for the village. They welcomed us with open arms so we went back today to meet with the entire community. It was a little intimidating at first, as the entire village was there surrounding us (we were in the middle and had to spin around to talk to everyone). One thing we noticed is that all of the men sat together, all of the women in a different spot and all of the kids filling in the gaps. We had broken up our speech so all of us got to explain a different part of the process and bond with the community. They especially loved the beginning when we said “Despa” (good morning) and “Ebeera” (how did you sleep) to the entire village, and that helped set the tone for the meeting. At the end, our village asked a lot of questions but sometimes other village people would answer for them which showed us they were really getting the concepts down that we’d been explaining, which made us feel great. Afterwards, the entire village wanted to get in a picture with us followed by all of the women and then by the chief himself. Upon leaving we felt very welcome in the community and are excited to work with them over the coming weeks!!
After our visit to the village, our translator, Nestor, invited us over to his house for Pito, a homemade beer his mom makes. We were all extremely excited that Nestor was opening up to us and inviting us to meet his family. His house was a cute little area right off the road and was bustling with people while we were there (as he’d promised). We got to meet his parents, older brother, friend of his sisters, his best friend, his goat, his puppy (junior el Tigre), his many chickens, and his nieces and nephews. Everyone in our group LOVED the Pito, except Brittany, and would definitely drink it again. We drank it out of a calabash, which are bowls made out of dried plants, which made us all feel like a big part of the culture. After we were done with our Pito, there was a parade going on outside for a new chief of the village. There were people on motos, people drumming, some dancing and some walking in front of the taxi that held the new chief. It was another awesome bit of culture we were lucky enough to experience!
Today we’ll start building the stand for our treatment center and we couldn’t be more excited to go back to our village!!
New Year’s Day in Ghana
We had a great first day of 2014 here in Tamale! After a late night spent ringing in the New Year, we all slept in and then met at GILLBT for another day of orientation. It started off with an awesome monitoring presentation by our field staff: Peter, Shak, Eric, Wahab and Amin. The fellows had great questions for the staff! Bimala asked the guys, “What motivates you?” Shak, who has worked with CWS for over 4 years, replied, “This is my country and everyone deserves to drink clean water. I feel proud for my people, they feel proud to have clean water to drink and you all should be very proud for what you are able to provide for your new communities.”
After the presentation we all headed to the CWS office just down the road for a tour of the water quality testing lab. Brianan, CWS’ West African Regional Director, led the tour and gave an introduction to the lab work the fellows will be doing once they are done implementing in their communities. The Fellows will taking water samples from the safe storage containers that people will keep in their homes to test for recontamination. Testing for recontamination will help pinpoint additional education for the households.
Later in the afternoon, orientation continued with alum training. Alum is the first step in CWS’ water treatment model. It works to remove the particles and turbidity from the water. As the fellows have never worked with alum before it is important that they know how it works so they can teach it to the women entrepreneurs in their village.
The fellows then broke off into their groups to practice Dugbani (the local tribal language) with their translators. First they practiced greetings and then went through some mock household monitoring. The mock-monitoring conversations are a great way for the Fellows to get used to the format of questions and to practice working with a translator.
Yesterday, the fellows put their monitoring skills to the test in some of our current CWS villages! It was their first time in the field with just their translator and everyone had a great time! Today, they are off to their new villages for the first day! We can’t wait to hear how their first meetings went!
First Day in the Field
The Fellows started off the second day of Orientation with presentations on the Global Water Crisis, Water and Disease, different types of water treatment, and the CWS project model. After lunch, they finally got to see a CWS village in action. Armed with their new knowledge from Orientation, each team of Fellows headed out on site visits to see the water treatment centers in two separate communities in which CWS has already implemented. Three of the teams visited Bogu and Tindan, and the other two stopped in Kurugu Vohoyili and Gariezegu. Despite the dusty and bumpy ride, the Fellows were excited to see the villages firsthand and to practice a few greetings in Dugbani to the children that followed them all the way to the treatment center. They also took samples of the Dugout water in each community so that they can practice treating the water with alum tomorrow. The New Years celebration started with the revealing of the translators that they will be working with over the next 3 weeks! We headed off to a local favorite, Sparkles, to continue our celebration and ring in the new year!
Happy New Years from all of us in Tamale!!
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year from the 2014 Winter Fellows!
First Day in Tamale with the 2014 Winter Fellows!
After a long few days of travel, today was the first official day of the 2014 Winter Fellowship Program! After an all-night bus ride and a 7am arrival into Tamale the Fellows (and the CWS staff!) were all eager to eat breakfast, shower and nap for a few hours. We then all gathered for lunch and started orientation. After a few icebreaker games in an effort to get to learning each others name it was on to the first lesson: Ghana 101. After getting a lesson about Ghana and Tamale, the fellows teams were announced and they were sent off on a scavenger hunt around town– putting their new knowledge to the test.
It will be a early morning tomorrow with continued presentations about the global water crisis, water and disease, different water interventions and finally the nitty gritty of CWS and what we do! After a break for lunch, we will all head out to the field to see our current water treatment centers in action. Everyone is very excited to get out to the villages for the first time!
