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Voices from Field: Team Simply, Rana, Alex & Lucrece

Posted on January 15, 2016January 15, 2016 by admin

Our opening day experience at Chihigu Village was truly wonderful.

We were first worried because no one was present at the water center when we arrived, but within minutes we saw a line of purple buckets moving toward us; Those were the Fulanis! Shortly after, the Chihigu community flooded as well, and within minutes the treatment center was surrounded by about 50 women and children. They were all eager to purchase their clean water so we had to move quickly. We set up a cleaning station to clean the Safe Storage Containers (purple buckets), and a check-up station where we would fix leaking taps. The women quickly took over the cleaning station, as they were more efficient than us at that task.

Over the course of opening day, we sold to every household with the exception of a few families that were out of town. Some families were so enthusiastic about drinking the treated water that they purchased additional containers for their households. Towards the end, we had sold so much that we ran out of clean water, and we had to treat more water immediately for the remaining women. We were glad to see that women were willing to wait while we were helping the entrepreneurs treat more water. Our translator Simply and our driver Cartier were extremely skilled and helpful, and supported us in most tasks.

The entire team felt so humbled to see the women happily walk back in the direction of their households carrying their purple buckets on their heads and that opening day was such a success. We even got to enjoy some games of football with the village children in-between sales! Team Simply is looking forward to visiting with each household during monitoring over the next few days and speaking with the family members and seeing how they are using Saha Global’s treated water in their homes and hearing all their feedback!

Alex, Rana, Simply and Lucrece

Voice from the Field: Team TJ – Jeremy, Ellie, Jessica and Leigh

Posted on January 13, 2016 by admin

Dear Diary,

Today began with uncertainty… Last night we lay restless with the thought that our Poltyank water could be contaminated. On the ride to Futa today, we anxiously waited for Kathryn’s call to disclose the water tests. To our relief, the water was clean! Although we were one man down (feel better Jess!) we were so excited that opening day had finally arrived!!! We got to Futa and quickly realized the key to the Polytank was with our fallen team mate back at the guesthouse. Yet there was a solution: our translator TJ, a rock, and a screwdriver after much effort cracked it.

There was a buzz in Futa upon our arrival. Several women had sent their children ahead to queue up for the opening. Our three entrepreneurs, Fati, Mariama, and Sanatu, met us at the treatment center, ready to make their first sales. Quickly a line formed and it seemed all of Futa’s women were ready to claim their clean water with their safe storage containers in hand. We eagerly jotted down ever family that came to the center, remembering their households during the container distribution days.

Many women tried the water firsthand and loved the taste, comparing it to sachet water locally found in town. The transformation from mucky dugout water to clear, safe drinking water was amazing. In order to celebrate the success of the center and the water’s outcome, many laughs were had and there was even a dance off between Jeremy and Fati (Fati clearly won). Out of the 32 households, 27 were present at the center. Fati, Mariama, and Sanatu did a wonderful job running their business and were beyond thrilled to be providing their community with clean drinking water.

To finish off the day, a few egg and bread sandwiches were in order to commemorate the business’ opening. Now for some Fanmilk and much needed naps! More to come, stay tuned…

Love,

Team TJ, aka Team Eggs and Bread

Voices from the Field: Team Khadijah – Phoebe, Hannah, Kevin and Kayleah

Posted on January 11, 2016 by admin

Over the course of the of the past week and a half our team has been working in the village of Vogu-Gundaa which is about an hour’s drive outside the city of Tamale. Saha Global implemented a clean water system in this community 2 ½ years ago and now we are working to install a solar center to provide the community with clean electricity. During our meetings with the chief and the community we learned that they are currently using kerosene lamps and lead acid batteries to power flashlights for lighting. They have experienced the harmful effects of these products but do not have other options to have light in their homes. Our goal is to install a solar center that can charge reusable batteries for lanterns as well as charge cell phones and other small appliances.

Installing the solar panels in Vogu-Gundaa

These past few days we have been working to construct the physical structure that will house the solar center. Yesterday we worked with the community to set up the solar panels. We also started to train the women who will be running the business. We are very lucky to have 4 women that currently run the water business in the village and who will also run the solar business. Miriam, Abebeta, Awaab, and Fati have all been very excited about learning how the system works and getting started with the solar business. The typical Saha business only has 2 women running it but we have found that with 4 women there is a lot of energy for this project and they are wonderful at working together. We are very proud of how well they are doing and excited for them to run this business!

Phoebe, Kevin and Khadijah instructing the Miriam, Abebeta, Awaab and Fati how to hook up the solar panels

The next step of training was putting the system together. Today we disconnected everything and they put it back together independently so they knew how everything works. We have been talking them through the processes and it was so great to see their excitement when they flipped the switches and the lights came on showing that the batteries and phones were charging. This is great progress for this community and it was awesome to see how happy they are about this potential.

Now that we have installed the solar system itself and begun training the women, our next steps are finishing their financial training and beginning distribution of the lanterns to the community. We have 43 households in our community and each will have the chance to purchase lanterns for a very reduced price so every household can afford it. Everyone we have talked to is very excited about the prospect of having lanterns in their households to provide light for cooking, studying and nightly chores. They are also very excited to charge their cell phones in their own community rather than traveling to town to do so. We have had a great time working with the women and the community, and are very excited to see this business prosper for the social and economic benefit of all members of Vogu-Gundaa.

Team Khadijah (Hannah, Kayleah, Kevin & Phoebe)

Voices from the Field: Oxwell, Karla, Peter, Camila & Ashley

Posted on January 10, 2016January 10, 2016 by admin

This dream team consists of five — Karla, Ashley, Oxwell, Camila, and our translator/guide, Peter. We are implementing Saha’s water treatment center in Galikpegu, a well-established village of roughly 80 households. We began by setting up our water treatment center and teaching Mariama and Lydia — two extremely competent entrepreneurs-to-be — how to begin filtering the dugout water by first adding aluminum sulfate. Then on Thursday, January 7th, we began distributing safe storage containers (SSC) (before any other team!). That day, we provided 14 households with SSCs and a brief education proper SSCs usage and on the health implications of contaminated water. Our efficiency was largely thanks to our translator, Peter, and the bunch of kids who helped us carry the SSCs! It was also really awesome to hear Lidia and Mariama’s thoughts about the clean water business. They were excited to be implementing the Saha’s water filtration process in their village and wished to know what our thoughts were on how best they could make the business successful and sustainable. Another highlight of the day occurred during distribution when we visited the household of a women who already knew about Saha Global’s clean water businesses . In her mother’s village she had seen the safe storage containers before and had drank the filtered water in her mother’s home. There fore she was really excited to know that she could now have her own safe storage container that she could use to provide safe and healthy drinking water for her family!

The current drinking water source in Galinkpegu. Tests came back positive for total coliform and E.coli

Team Peter recruits some helping hands during distribution

We continued distributing SSCs on Friday, the 8th, after meeting with our business women to continue chlorine training. This time, we disseminated 33 SSCs, each along with a brief explanation of proper usage and of water health, to an extremely receptive and grateful community. A very enjoyable and insightful part of the safe storage container distribution process is listening to the questions the villagers have about everything. Their concerns such as what should they do when they want clean drinking water while working on the farm or when can they purchase more safe storage containers from Saha so that all of their family have access to clean water really demonstrated how passionate and strongly they feel about bettering their health and that of family’s members. During distribution, when we asked the members of the households if they would be using the water treatment center often, pretty much all of them replied that they would use it all of the time. They said that they are aware that the dugout water is bad, but in the past they didn’t have any other option. We hope to finish distribution on Saturday to allow for a couple of days of fun with the children of Galikpegu before opening day on Tuesday, January 12th. We remain extremely grateful for the opportunity to provide safe potable water and to work with such incredible, beautiful, and humble people.

Karla, Oxwell, Ashley, Camilla and Peter

Voices from the Field: Team Sharifa

Posted on January 9, 2016 by admin

“Despa! Despa!” The children shouted, running after our car as we drove up. Today was our sixth day working in Sagbarigu; we finished construction of the solar charging center, held our community meeting, and installed the solar panels.

The community we’re working in is very small, located about an hour outside of Tamale. They already have a Saha water business, and the owner, Sanatu, has been taking good care of things for the past year and a half.

The initial chief meeting went well, so we started building on Monday. Most of the women in the community were traveling for the first few days, so we didn’t have a chance to meet with the whole community until today.

We started off by going over the details of the business model, making sure to emphasize that the entrepreneurs are the owners, not Saha Global. Then we passed around a lantern and showed them its functionality, explaining the procedure for renting batteries and charging cell phones at the center. They had mentioned getting a television yesterday, so we mentioned that the charging center is expressly not for large electronics.

Near the end of the meeting, we opened the floor for questions. They asked how much everything would cost, whether they could buy extra lanterns, and when opening night would be. We told them that prices were up to the women running the business, but that they could buy extra lanterns from them later on if they needed to, and that we are scheduled to open next Wednesday!

-Sarah, Sienna, Ali, Michelle and Sharifa

Voices from the Field: Signe, Nestor, Cayla, Abbey and Nicole

Posted on January 8, 2016January 8, 2016 by admin

Team Nestor is having an amazing time working with Saha Global! The past couple days have been so rewarding for everyone involved in this mission to bring clean water to our village of Naha. Yesterday we had our community meeting with the village of 45 households. After we explained the entire Saha process, the village told us how appreciative they were for our effort to bring them safe water and we said we were so excited to begin working with them. We had our taxi loaded up with a Polytank stand and two big blue drums- a funny sight to see driving through town and down a dirt road to our village.

After we unloaded our supplies, we played a game of soccer with some of the many children of Naha. It was us and Nestor vs. the kids. Needless to say, the kids were much better than us and Nestor carried the whole team. Soon after, we too Nestor out to a surprise lunch of TZ because its his favorite dish and he’s the best translator (in our opinion). We headed back to the office to check on our lab results of the dugout water that they drink, untreated. We found some of the worst results that have been seen in a while. Our 3M test was covered in blue dots, which indicate E. Coli. It was a sad sight, but the good news is today we started training Aranhanatu and Madamu how to clean the water.

3M Tests from this winter's water sources - Naha's test is the bottom right — 3M Tests from this winter’s water sources – Naha’s test is the bottom right

We started by cleaning the inside and outside of the Polytank and 3 blue drums. The Polytank is so big that Nicole had to go inside of it to clean it. Nestor and Cayla may have rolled it around a little to scare her… it was all the kids’ idea! All of us helped collect water to fill the blue drums, and yes carrying things on your head is as hard as it looks. After we finished alum training, we headed back to the Saha office, blasting “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” and teaching Nestor the words. Tomorrow, we hope to finish the training process and start distributing safe storage containers! We can’t wait for our opening day on Sunday!

Nicole, Signe, Cayla, Abbey & Nestor

Voices from the Field: Team Amin, Stacy, Sarah and Jason

Posted on January 7, 2016January 7, 2016 by admin

Team Amin discusses a day of monitoring in Kpanshegu, a community whose business has been running 1 year now.

Before meeting the Chief of Kpanshegu and monitoring his village, we met his wife the queen mother. I barely had time to get to a full “Despa” before she hugged me at my waist, spun me 180 degrees around and plopped me on her bed to sit. Stacy got the same welcome. We didn’t mind any of it because it was completely out of her own excitement and kindness.

Through our translator, Amin, we learned that she was so happy to see a team from Saha after the organization had implemented a clean water village in their area a year prior. Saskia and Jamila are still running it today. The queen explained their previous situation in which they would moto to town when they could, often hitting traffic along the way.

It’s problems like these – the reliability of transportation and proximity among other factors – that prevent villages all over Ghana from accessing safe drinking water.

While we walked through the town asking about households’ kom yurum bambala, or safe storage containers (SSC), people asked Amin about the previous field reps who helped establish the business. Through our conversations we learned some people used their clean water for cleaning and some used it for tea. Others had issues with their storage containers, for instance, leaky faucets that required Amin to wrench a new one into place.

Despite some snags in monitoring, like, our first household’s dusty SSC,which presumably hadn’t been refilled in a number of days, and another SSC’s water containing dirt, we ended on a celebratory note.

For instance, the Mahamaru household kept polytank water in their SSC. It was clear and reflected the sunlight. If you’re familiar with Pulp Fiction, the feeling of seeing that clean water after other contaminated SSCs is similar to the briefcase scene.

Additionally, Chief A. A. Abudu who also happens to be the president of the Northern Region High Chiefs tried to get us drunk. If the chief says it’s not alcoholic, but it clearly looks, smells, and tastes like strawberry liqueur, it’s probably alcoholic. Additionally he offered us beer to which we declined. The chief was supportive of Saha and happy to shoot the breeze with Jason, Stacy, Amin, and I on among other things his time spent in Germany, the weather in Virginia, what and where Illinois is, and his phone number.

Just based on a visit with six or seven households and the local government it was apparent that Saha has a positive reputation within this community and is an important partner. We were able to meet our own community and we can tell already it’s going to be another successful partnership.

Translator Amin gets excited about the work in Kpalguni - the newest Saha community! — Translator Amin gets excited about the work in Kpalguni – the newest Saha community!

Voices from the Field: Bridget, Emily, Shak, Trevon & Hailey

Posted on January 5, 2016January 5, 2016 by admin

Teammates Bridget, Emily, Shak, Trevon & Hailey

We safely arrived in Tamale early last week after a long 12-hour bus ride that turned into a 24-hour ride when our bus broke down near Kumasi. After a couple of orientation days learning more about solar energy and the Ghanaian culture we were ready to take to the field to see it first hand. We got to experience our first community in a place that already had solar power that Saha Global implemented in order to ask questions and see how it was being run. After this we were able to go out and monitor other communities as well. It was great to see how the solar centers had such a positive impact on all of the communities.

It was a very exciting day when we found out our teams and communities in which we would be working for the next two weeks. Our team has had a great time together and it is so much fun getting to know everyone better considering we all come from such different places, and have different personalities. Our team consist of Haley, Emily, Trey, and Bridget along with our translator, Shak.

Another really exciting thing for us is how awesome our village, Kushini, is. We had a meeting with the chief to pitch our idea of building a solar center. He was so excited about it and they couldn’t wait to help us start with the construction. The next day when we went back, instead of doing the traditional route of building an entirely new building, the village donated a building to us that was not being used anymore. So instead of taking time to build a new one we are using the time and resources to fix up the great building they already have.

Even though this isn’t the stereotypical procedure for building a solar center we are so happy that we are able to use this building in the community. We will be painting the building in the next couple of days and then will start training the women on the solar equipment.

-Trevon, Hailey, Emily & Bridget

Our 2016 Winter Field Reps have touched down in Ghana!

Posted on December 28, 2015December 28, 2015 by admin

Akwaaba from Pink Hostel! We are excited that the Winter Global Leadership Program is officially underway! Field Reps have been arriving all day and after numerous trips to and from the airport, 39 Field Reps are safely checked in and have just finished chowing down on their first Ghanaian meal – vegetable fried rice, chicken and a special green-pepper sauce. Tomorrow we’ve got an early (4am!) wake-up call, then it’s an all-day bus to the capital of the Northern Region (and orientation home-base), Tamale.

Three Field Reps, Jessica, Phoebe and Paige-Ashley, are still in transit, but our Assistant Program Manager Amin will make sure they get up North and oriented over the next 2 days.

If you don’t already, be sure to follow us on Facebook and Instagram (@sahaglobal) to check out pictures of the Field Reps in action. More to come soon!

– Kathryn, Shak, Katie and Amin

Introducing Saha’s Operations Coordinator Eda & Programming Coordinator Katie

Posted on December 10, 2015December 10, 2015 by admin

415766_10200741032501769_1369149805_o — From left to right- Shak, Eda, Hailey, Victoria & Jacob, Eda’s team members during her time on the Global Leadership Program in the Summer of 2013.

First up, Eda Reed. Take it away…

Ghana, it’s been too long – but I’m coming back! Nicaragua, same goes for you! This June will be three years since my time as a field rep in the village of Vogyili, and I am more than excited to get back to Ghana and explore Nicaragua as the new Operations Coordinator!

In May, I’ll graduate from Colby College with a bachelor’s degree in biology and environmental science, with a concentration in the environment and human health. I’m passionate about the health of humans, wildlife, and the environment, and how they interact (aka One Health). I believe that we need to focus on all three of these stakeholders in order to make improved global health a reality, and that’s why I love Saha Global’s model! The clean water and solar energy businesses focus on solutions to improving human health that are local, sustainable, and ultimately beneficial for more than just the immediate village impacted. My time in Ghana was the “aha” moment that sparked my passion, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to go back!

Me with Mary & Fusiena — Eda with Vogyili’s water entrepreneurs Mary and Fusiena

I think there’s great potential for Saha’s expansion to Nicaragua, and I can’t wait to find Saha’s niche. I spent a few weeks near Managua in the west of Nicaragua in 2014 teaching environmental science and implementing environmental health projects. Everyone I worked with there were as welcoming and friendly as Fuseina and Mary from Vogyili, the two women managing the clean water business I helped set up. I’m convinced the northeastern region of Nicaragua will be no different! It will be challenging to find what pieces of the Saha model work or don’t work in a new country, but I’m confident Katie and I have what it takes! I can’t wait until we begin our new adventures in Ghana and Nicaragua.

-Eda

And now we will hear from Katie Spruill. (And yes we know this makes a Kate, Kathryn and now a Katie on the Saha Team). Katie will be helping us lead this Winter’s Program as well! Without further ado…

I am excited to be Saha’s Programming Coordinator beginning in June 2016! Since

participating in the Leadership Program in May of 2014, I have wanted to be a part of the Saha team. I graduate from Virginia Tech (Go Hokies!!) in May of 2016 with a Bachelor of Science in Biological Systems Engineering and a Green Engineering minor. I have always been interested in international development and from the moment I learned about Saha Global’s leadership program, I knew I needed to apply.

Ana, Katie, Nestor, Alex, and Nicole (From left to right) on their final day in Sagbarigu.

In my first few days in Ghana, as a Field Rep, I experienced a roller coaster of emotions. I was very excited to be involved in helping so many people. At the same time, however, it was heart breaking to see these beautiful kids drinking contaminated water. Working with the women entrepreneurs, to build the water treatment center, was an incredible experience. We didn’t speak the same language, but I could immediately sense their enthusiasm for the project and their sense of community during our many meetings with the village. I will always remember Sanatu, one of the women entrepreneurs, grabbing my hands on our last day and asking me to never forget her. Forgetting her was never an option, she had made a bigger impact on my life than I could ever have made on her life.

Needless to say, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to serve as Saha’s programming coordinator. I am ecstatic to get back to Ghana and I cannot wait to start our work in Nicaragua!

-Katie