Hi from Team Simply in Ghana! We have the privilege of implementing a clean water business in the village of Bamvim. Yesterday, we met with our community members and picked a spot near the dugout to put the Polytank stand, where the clean water center will be established. Together with the community, we painted the stand so that it would not rust. Unfortunately, our paint leaked all over the bag with all of our tools inside, so everything was covered in blue paint. We only had two paint brushes, so we had to think on our feet a little bit and ended up painting with our hands. It was definitely a messy but fun morning, and an awesome experience to share with the community members. One of the village elders loved the end result so much that he wanted us to come back and paint the door to his home.
In order to clear the area for the stand, some of the men worked to cut away some of the surrounding brush. Obviously, we were very thankful for their help.
Today was Day 1 of training the women who will run the water business. We went over how to use alum (the coagulant that makes particles in the water sink to the bottom so that the water becomes clear), but they already knew how, so it was a pretty straightforward process. We also went over how to assemble the safe storage containers that will hold the clean water for each household. The women are very smart and eager to learn, so they learned quickly. Outside of the three women who will run the business, many community members came to watch the process, including children and elders. Everyone is so excited, which is awesome 🙂 The day was long, but it didn’t feel like work at all. We had so much fun bonding and collaborating with the women and with the community members. Everyone applauded after each woman successfully assembled a safe storage container; there was a lot of encouragement and empowerment between the women. Today generated a lot of excitement as the idea of the clean water business comes to life. We purchased the rest of our materials today, and will put the center together tomorrow. The community of Bamvim, along with ourselves, plan to open the business on Monday, June 22nd! Days like these highlight Saha Global’s ideals of community engagement, women empowerment, and sustainable business opportunities, and we are so excited to be a part of it all.
We have had a very eventful first couple of days in our village, Jangbarayili! Our first challenge was to pronounce the name of the village…a task we are continuing to work on. We set out early morning on the first day to greet our village. At 6:00am we left with our translator to get the engine fixed to make our voyage. We waited 2 long hours for the repairs to be completed and then were hopeful to get going. As we were driving we had our first run in with the Ghanaian cops, not once…but TWICE (within 5 minutes of each other we might add). Finally, we arrived and were greeted with children fighting to hold our hands, so much so, there was one child per finger. This is when we knew this would be a great village to work with. Trying to break free from the kids’ grasps we met with Chairman Yaya to seek a meeting with the chief and elders. The chief was out farming, so we busied ourselves by trying to find the crocodiles known to lurk around the dugout. Once the chief returned, he and the elders were already seated and waiting for us to pitch our purpose of working with them to create a solar power center and business to be run by respected women in the community (the same model that was implemented by Saha Global for the previous water business). They accepted without any hesitation and even said “No was not an option.” They were gracious for the opportunity to bring light to their village and we were excited to stat working with them!
June 15th
We woke up the next morning eager and hopeful for the day ahead. We ambitiously left to gather and purchase ALL the supplies that morning so we could prove our commitment to the village. Unfortunately, we ran into unexpected complications in the process. For instance, we had no idea what the items should cost in GHCs, and did not know which items could be bartered for or what item had set prices. We also had to go many different places to cut the wood because some businesses ran out of power. After many stops and learning experiences, we got most of the supplies and were pleasantly surprised by how many people in the community had gathered to work and how much they had already accomplished in building the structure. The men in the community taught us how to make mortar by mixing water and clay in a pit, so we all literally jumped in to get our hands and feet. Everyone helped out and even the little kids made their own assembly line carrying little piles of mortar to connect the bricks. In no time at all, it was finished!
June 16th
Day three, we started on the roof with a local carpenter. Since the carpenter was an expert, there was little help us or the community could give him, so we took the opportunity to get to know the women entrepreneurs. We asked them questions about their water business as well as going over their solar business that was soon to come. They even gave us a chuckle with a funny story about a spider who thought he could be oil in a pot. The funniest part was not the story itself, but the women acting out the scene complete with shouting and wiggling her behind. Another team member bonded with the boys playing soccer and another brought together the community with her Ukulele. At the end of the day, we accomplished all of our goals and even more! We are now ready to tackle each new day with the village and all the challenges that will arise.
Team Jaleel: Greta, Heidi, Lindsey, Hunter and Jaleel (not pictured)
P.S. Drought is alive and well in Ghana’s rainy season. Fortunately, it has just started pouring as we type.
-The Greatest Team (Lindsey, Heidi, Greta, Hunter, Jaleel)
Orientation is completed and our 4 water teams and 7 solar teams are beginning the work of building their new businesses! We will feature stories and pictures from all 11 teams as our program continues. Kicking off our tradition of “Voices from the Field” is Team Amin.
Today our group, comprised of Sasha, Sarah, Tara, Richard and our translator Amin, made our way out to Komlan-yili to pitch the Saha Global business model for community water filtration. After picking up our water supplies from the office we made our way out to the rural community. An hour and a half of dirt, potholed-roads later we arrived. We immediately made our way to the water source, which was predetermined as a stream nearby. After driving to the stream, it was clear the stream had dried up considerably. The seasonal change in location had forced the community members to walk farther and farther to get dirtier stream water. After walking along the dried banks we made our way to the current filling location, passing multiple women who were carrying water along the way. Without even touching the water it was clear how turbid and contaminated the stream was. While briefly talking to a group who was fetching water, we collected our sample and proceeded to make our way back to the community.
Sasha, Amin, Richard, Tara and Sarah meet with the community of Komlanyili for the first time to discuss the water business idea
Upon returning to Komlan-yili, we drove into the heart of the community to speak with a community member. With the help of Amin, we requested a meeting with the community chief and were told to have a seat under a prominent tree among other community members while someone ran to go get him. In a short moment, a wooden reclining chair had been set in front of us and two elders took their place directly across from us. After exchanging pleasantries, the chief proceeded to ask the purpose of our visit (whether we had come to see him or were being chased and wound up there).
Here we began to explain how we suspected their water source was contaminated. We asked questions about the quality of water and if it made them sick, especially probing about diarrhea. When the elders and the community members confirmed our suspicion, we proceeded to explain how we, Saha, could provide their community with clean water using a four-step process. These steps were the following: 1) building a center to house the water, 2) training women entrepreneurs to filter the water and run the business, 3) distribute safe storage containers to each household, and 4) opening and maintaining the businesses after we leave.
Women collect water from Komlanyili’s stream.
Beyond this explanation we concluded that Saha does not pay the women at all and simply helps set up the business. After initial implementation, we explained, it is up to the women entrepreneurs and the community to maintain the business and ensure its success. With this final note, we asked if the elder had any questions and were told that they were very grateful to have us visit and were excited to begin work with us. Exchanging thank you’s and pleasantries once again, we set a time for a community-wide meeting the next day before giving the elder an offering of kola nuts. With much excitement, they exclaimed that they were the ones who were supposed to give us an offering and proceeded to give us eggs as a gift. With much gratitude, we accepted and took our leave to regroup back at our lodging.
Round 3 of the Saha Challenge took place in Boston and we are just one step away from choosing our expansion country. Our Field Rep Alumni Challenge participants came to Boston on Sunday May 31st to give their final pitches for Cambodia, Ecuador, Panama, Peru and Nicaragua to a panel of judges.
For this round of the competition each team was given twenty minutes to pitch a 10 day scouting plan for our team to follow this Summer. Since February the participants have been researching these countries to get a better idea of what operating in the different regions may look like. The plan they put together outlined where we would fly into, the in-country transportation logistics required to reach rural communities, and proposed one to three cities for the Saha headquarters, as well as anticipate what we should expect in the communities as far as water and electricity access goes.
The panel of judges consisted of Kate Clopeck, Gabe Shapiro, Sarah Kearney, Pat Cahill, and Susan Murcott. As many of you may be aware, Kate Clopeck is Saha’s Executive Director and Co-founder; she knows the interworking of Saha’s operations in Ghana and gave the panel a balance when thinking through the feasibility of obstacles each country presented. Gabe Shapiro is Vice President of Outreach Programs at Next Step Living, one of Saha’s partners. Sarah Kearney is a Saha Board Member and the Executive Director at PRIME Coalition. Pat Cahill is also a Board Member and is the President at beep! directed voicemail. Susan Murcott is a Research Engineer at MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning and was Kate’s advisor when she attended MIT. Each judge’s unique understanding in this round was IMMENSELY beneficial! Their insight when thinking through Saha Global’s expansion in each of these countries combined with their personal experience were incredible viewpoints to have when considering our operations in each country.
Our panel of judges was throughly impressed by each of our participants. It was important for our judges to remember that the best pitch may not be the best fit for Saha’s expansion. They really needed to take the information at hand and applying that to Saha’s current model. After much deliberation, the judges selected Peru and Nicaragua, with the runner up being Ecuador. At the moment our budget only allows for scouting two countries. If given adequate funding, we would also love to scout Ecuador, as we think it has great Saha expansion potential.
For this next step in the Challenge our team will pack up and head to Peru and Nicaragua! The research is at a point where the only to way to get a better idea of what working in the country is to physically be there! Traveling out to the rural communities, meeting with community leaders, asking them about the current water and electricity situation, figuring out what materials are locally available, talking with locals about transportation and accommodation options, etc. We could not be any more excited!
A huge thank you to Katie Rumer, Kirsten Abel, MJ Rice, Sarah Steinke, Maxine Auzerais, and Kiana Kawamura for your participation in the Saha Challenge. We could have never gotten to this point without you. You all presented a solid case for your country’s and, if funding allowed, we would love to scout each one! Your research will be EXTREMELY beneficial as we look forward to exploring Cambodia, Ecuador and Panama for Saha in the future!
Ramatu is one of the business owners of both the solar and water businesses in Nekpegu, a small village located about two hours outside of Tamale. She was born and raised in Tohinayili, which is another Saha partner village in the Northern Region of Ghana. She later got married to her present husband in Nekpegu and has lived there ever since. She has 6 kids, four boys (two of the boys are a set of twins!) and two girls. Alongside running the water and solar businesses in her community, she farms groundnuts, okra and shea nuts. She grinds the shea nuts to make shea butter, which she then sells in the market.
Ramatu and her business partner, Fatima, have been running the water business in Nekpegu for two years. With the help of 2013 Winter Field Reps, Vanessa, Linda, Alexa & Julia, Ramatu and Fati were trained how to run the water treatment business to provide a source of clean drinking water to their entire community of about 300 people. “People are cooperative and come to buy water anytime they treat water and make announcements,” says Ramatu.
The solar charging business was implemented in Nekpegu just this past November by 2014 Fall Field Reps, Anne, Terry, Kerry & Mary. “Now our kids can study at night” Ramatu says. When asking Ramatu about the solar business she remembered the opening night of the solar center when they did a local dance, torah, with Terry and Anne to celebrate. “I am so happy to make sales at the solar and water business!” she states.
March was the second month that our Ghana team used new monitoring procedures, and they really started to get in the swing of things. March was a notable water month because we celebrated World Water Day with our women entrepreneurs in Tamale! Check out Eric’s post for more great pictures and stories from this awesome day! Below is the monthly monitoring summary for March:
For a detailed description of how each line item is calculated, check out our February post.
There are a few things to note about our March monitoring results. The first is that our water business usage rate dropped slightly from February to March. This is due to dry dugouts. March and April are a very challenging time for our village partners because it is the very end of the dry season and many water sources run dry for a few weeks or a month before the rains come. This is difficult for Saha to deal with because without water in dugouts, there is no water for the women to treat and sell. They must temporarily pause operations until the rain comes. The number of dried dugouts varies year to year. This March, the dugouts in Chandanyili, Jabgerin, Galinzegu, and Zanzegu Yipela all ran dry.
When we monitor villages with dried dugouts, we still do household visits to see where people are getting their water. Sometimes, it will rain enough for a family to collect rainwater in their safe storage container, but not enough to fill the dugout. So, that house will have clean water and we will count them, but their neighbor may not. Sometimes people will walk to a nearby village with a Saha business and buy water there, so we can count them as having clean water too. But oftentimes, people do not have clean water when we check, so our average is brought down for the month. Our staff makes an effort to inform the District Assemblies about communities with dry dugouts, to see if the government can help them at all. Amin and Peter are in charge of setting up these meetings and are doing a great job! But for the most part, all that we can do is wait and hope for rain for our community partners.
The dried dugout in Chandanyili
Another thing to note about March is that our team did a much better job of visiting all of the new businesses, both water and solar! After the first week in March, every new business (less than 6 months old) was visited once a week. I was happy to have the team back on track after some scheduling difficulties last month.
The only other major issue in March was a conflict between the community of Budhja and the Fulani, a nomadic tribe that had been staying in the village. Due to the conflict, the entrepreneurs were nervous that the Fulani would steal their water supplies, so they closed the business for about two weeks. Many communities members left the village during the conflict and stayed at neighboring villages, so there weren’t many people around to buy water anyway. By the end of the month the conflict was resolved and business returned to normal in Budhja.
On the solar side, we had an exciting month because the entrepreneurs from Tacpuli opened their bank account! Amin spent the whole day at the bank with Lasiche, Maraiama, and Ayishetu but it was well worth it. Congrats Ladies! All of other solar businesses were up in running in March, with no technical difficulties and consistent sales. A great month for sure!
Lasiche, Maraiama, and Ayishetu opening a bank account for their solar business.
If you would like more information, the detailed week by week reports are all available online here. Check it out and email kate@sahaglobal.org if you have any questions! Below are some more pictures from March monitoring in the field.
-Kate
Its a good morning for solar sales in Djelo!
A busy day of at the water business in Sakpalua!
Thumbs up from Fusiena and Dawu!
Everyone loves a good selfie!
Peter chatting with a family in Idigenous Kabache
First stop, the water business! Wahab taking notes on the water levels
World Water Day Celebrations at the Saha Office!
Clean solar panels means efficient electricity generation in Tacpuli!
My name is Matt. I’m 20 years old studying Industrial and Systems Engineering at Virginia Tech, and I was a field rep for the 2015 Winter Global Leadership Program. Over my first few years of college I was pretty focused the pursuit of “success” after graduation, which I figured involved landing a job and making money. I started doing web development for a consulting firm and things seemed to be falling into place, but by the time I started my senior year I had realized the path I was on wasn’t going to lead me to happiness. I knew I wanted to make a change, but I didn’t know in what direction. Enter Saha Global. I found out about the Global Leadership Program by chance through an email on my major’s Listserv. The program’s simplicity and elegance captivated me and I was amazed by the measurable impact it had in northern Ghana. I knew that this was something I would truly find rewarding.
The experience was so much more than I expected. I spent three weeks with my team in the village of Takpili implementing a solar electricity business. We laid mud bricks and constructed the solar center by hand, trained four women to be self-sustaining entrepreneurs, and supplied all 80 households in Takpili with renewable energy and light. But above all else, I value the relationships I built along the way. My fondest memories are of playing soccer with the children of the village, riding bikes through Tamale with Peter (our team’s leader-translator-extraordinaire), and learning to drive stick shift from our taxi driver, Hustla.
One of the biggest things I’ve learned from this experience is how those receiving aid view the organizations providing it. In Takpili, a village that already had a Saha water business, the village elders were completely receptive towards our propositions for implementing a solar business. They trusted us because of the level of commitment Saha had already demonstrated in monitoring the village years after implementation. In contrast, they expressed to us how they often see organizations come through and make promises of improving quality of life only to find that what they provided was extraneous. There were remnants of projects that were started but unbeknownst to the village, got caught up in red tape and were never finished. It really helped me appreciate the work Saha is doing, from the comprehensive village scouting and research beforehand to the five year post-implementation plan for village independence.
The Global Leadership Program shaped the way I think about my future. I know now that I want to work in international development, ideally in a field that also incorporates my engineering background. Currently I’m finishing up my undergraduate degree, looking to graduate in the spring, but I’m excited to stay involved with Saha in the future.
Want to learn more about Matt’s experience or have any specific questions? Matt would be happy to tell you more and can be contacted at matts@vt.edu Also keep up with what Matt is up to now here!
February was the first month that our Ghana team officially switched over to our new monitoring procedures. Below is the monthly monitoring summary for February:
I was happy to see that our usage rate (the % of households with clean water in their safe storage container when one of our team members stopped by) was 73%. Over the past 7 years, our average has been right around 75%, so right off the bat I could see that February was a pretty typical month (we are constantly striving to get this number up, mostly through education campaigns in our partner-villages, but at the same time, we are also constantly adding new communities). Keep in mind, just because there isn’t clean water in someone’s safe storage container, does not mean that there is contaminated water in there! Usually, the bucket is just empty. Some families may have just finished their water and haven’t had a chance to re-fill. However, for some it is because they aren’t frequently filling.
The “Clean Water Used” stat is calculated from the number of Aquatabs that the women reported having used each week. Each Aquatab treats 200L of water, so we just multiply the reported number by 200.
The “Clean Water Sold” stat is calculated from the number of Aquatabs that the women bought each week. This number differs from the clean water used because the entrepreneurs don’t always buy the same number of Aquatabs they use. Some women buy in bulk one month and slowly use the tablets over time, before making another big purchase a few months later. Others may use 2 in a week but then buy 3 or 4 to replenish their pile. Each business owner works out their own system.
The “Number of Lanterns Sold” indicates how many lanterns the solar business owners have sold to members of their community. During implementation, each family receives 1 lantern for 1 GHC, and they can buy more at market-rate if they would like. The women buy the lanterns from Saha at cost and then choose to mark up the prices as much as they would like. Unfortunately, over the last couple of months, our lantern supplier has increased the price of the lanterns dramatically, so the ladies haven’t been making many sales recently. Lantern sales used to be a big moneymaker for the solar entrepreneurs.
The “Average Solar Business Earnings” is the total earnings (730 GHS) divided by the number of villages visited. This month, our team only made it to 7 out of the 8 businesses. All revenue is reported in GHC.
Below is an example of the weekly data table that Wahab fills out, based on the information that our team collects in the field. You can access the actual excel files here – each week has it’s own tab, with the monthly data summarized at the end.
Remember, should you need to compare any excel files, you could always use this free excel compare tool. There were no big issues in our communities this month. Little things like leaky poly tanks sprung up here and there, but those small issues are easily solved. Some communities, like Wambong, reported slow water sales, but our team was able to work with the community and the entrepreneurs to get back on track (see the last photo below). The biggest challenge this month was getting our team back on track with their new monitoring schedule after the Winter Global Leadership Program. As I mentioned earlier we only made it to 7 solar communities in February. Since most of our solar businesses are less than a year old, each community should have been visited 3-4 times this month. After receiving the week 3 report from Wahab, I noticed this problem right away and discussed the issue with our Operations Manager, Shak, during our weekly check-in. Shak and the rest of the team then discussed their new schedules during their next staff meeting and were able to figure out how to re-arrange their weeks to make sure new communities were getting visited more frequently!
Below are some pictures from the Field from February! Stay tuned tomorrow for our March monitoring report!
-Kate
PS – remember, for monitoring reports from before 2015, visit our old site here.
Ayi selling water in Kurugu VohoyiliA busy morning in Kurugu VohoyliEric noting how many Aqutabs Fulera had boughtEric helping Ramatu how to strengthen the connection of the cell phone chargesThe Nekpegu solar center is bumpin’!Fati posing with all of the charging batteries in NekpeguStaff meeting selfies!A straight-faced Salima make sales early in the morning in WambongAfter a month of low water sales in Wambong, Shak and the women met with the community chairman. Chang-Chang suggested that he make announcements at the mosque whenever she had water ready to sell, and he agreed. After the first announcement, the water center was BUSY!
As we’ve mentioned a few times, Saha Global recently fully transitioned the management of our Ghana operations to our amazing Ghana team. During that transition, we also overhauled our monitoring process. With the help of our new Board Member, Mark Moeremans, we thought long and hard about the data that we collect when we monitor our water and solar businesses, what we use that data for, and how we communicate the results to our supporters around the world. In Mark’s blog post, we showed a sneak peek of our new monitoring spreadsheet, but we wanted to wait a couple months before posting regular updates to ensure that we would actually have enough data for the results to be meaningful. Well, a few months have passed and we are excited to start sharing our monitoring reports with all of you! This page is where you will be able to find all of our data from the field. Later this week, we’ll be posting our reports from February, March and April. After that, we’ll post a new update each month. If you are looking for reports from before 2015, you can head to our old monitoring page here.
Now, I would like to re-introduce one of our awesome managers, Eric Angkosaala. We thought that Eric would be the perfect person to describe just how our monitoring process has changed and what those changes mean for our Ghana team. Take it away, Eric!
A typical week for a staff starts on Monday at 6:30am at the Saha office. The Staff look on our updated whiteboard board to see which villages might need immediate attention. We grab supplies we might be running low on like Aquatabs, taps, glue, thread tape etc. We also take along safe storage buckets, lamps, batteries, etc. to the villages who demanded for them, either to buy or if there was a new family in the community who had not yet received one. We then head out to our respective villages. We get back from the field in the afternoon to meet at the office where we report to Shak about our day and update the board. We do this Monday to Friday. We sometimes go to field on Saturday when there is a pressing problem, like a leaky polytank. We go to help the women fix such problems as soon as we can, or else all the water would drip out and the women’s time and energy would be wasted. On Fridays at 3 pm, we sit for a staff meeting to discuss issues that happened during the week and talk on how to solve problems that might have developed that week and plan for the future.
Taking note of the water levels at the business in Djelo
Usually, we monitor three villages in a day, but that depends. Sometimes we only stop in two villages because, there might be a problem and we have to spend extra time on that problem village to try and fix the issue before leaving. Sometimes, we visit four villages in a day, because things were great in those villages or those villages are close to each other.
When we get to a village our first stop is at the water center, where we check if there is treated water in the polytank and what level the water is at. We also check the blue drums to see whether there is dugout water or water has been treated with alum and ready to scoop. We also check the polytank to make sure there is no leakage. If there is a problem, we try to work with the women entrepreneurs to fix it. If we can’t figure it out then, we take down notes to discuss with Shak and the team.
This is me chatting with Fulera, the water entrepreneur in Kalinka, about her sales.
Next, we ask the entrepreneurs how business is going. When was the last day they made sales? When was the last day they used aqua tabs and how many? We find out from them how many aqua tabs are remaining and if they would like to purchase more. We also find out if they are saving the money they get from sales. We ask to see if there are any problems. In solar villages, we then go to the solar center. Once there, we ask the women: Is everything working well? Did you have any problems? How many batteries did you rent this week? How many cell phones did you charge? How much money did you make this week? If there are no problems, we go around to households to see how people are doing with their safe storage containers and lanterns. In the households, we check to see if there is water and the level. We ask if they like the taste of water, if they have seen any improvement in their health, and if they know why dugout water is not safe to drink. We educate them on areas we see that they didn’t give good answers for. For solar villages, we ask families if they use their lantern. What do they use it for? Do they have a cell phone? How often do they charge their phone? We go around to at least 6 households in a village. But, we sometimes monitor 12 to 18 households if we observe that people are not going to the center to refill. If there are any complaints about the taste of water, we go back to the women to advise them on their next water treatment. We then move to the next village and then the next.
Anytime we get back from field, we look at the board to see which village has a problem or which villages have not been visited yet. We also look at the villages which are along the same area before choosing which villages to go.
Peter, filling out one of our old monitoring sheets in Sabonjida
When Brianan, our former Country Director was in Tamale, she used to go to field with a different field staff on a daily basis. Brianan created a monitoring sheet while she was here and some of the questions on it were: When was the last day sales were made? How many people came to refill? Are you saving from the sales you make? How are sales? Is there anything broken at the center? Was it fixed or do we need to go back? What’s the level of water in the polytank? How many blue drums have water in them and were they treated with alum? How many aquatabs were used the last time? How many remaining? Would you like to buy any more aquatabs? How many? Any compliants or problems? Have you seen an improvement in health? Why is dugout water not safe to drink?
We handed over the sheets to Brianan on our return from field and she would gather everything and then forward the reports to Kate.
Shak, Wahab, Amin and I checking in after a day in the field.
Now, we no longer use the monitoring sheets because we have been using the monitoring sheets over the last few years, we know the questions to ask the women and in households. We take down notes in a notebook, which helps to save a lot of paper! Then, when we get to the office we tell our reports to Wahab, who then collates everything on excel and forwards a weekly summary to Kate. Wahab’s reports focus more on numbers like the number of aquatabs sold, the amount of money the solar women made in a week, and the number of buckets with clean water, instead of on the answers we get from conversations. The number of aquatabs used and purchased helps us figure out how much water is treated and sold each week. We can then see if those numbers align with the sales the women report and what we observe during household visits.
We are one step closer to deciding where Saha Global is going to expand this year! On Sunday May 31st from 2:00pm to 4:00pm our Challenge Finalists will pitch their countries in front of a panel of expert judges in Boston, and we would love for you to join us!
In Round 2 of the Saha Challenge, our Field Rep alumni participants focused on a specific region and worked to quantify the need for clean water and electricity in the rural communities in that region. Over the last three months they have compiled research, have found partners on the ground, identified the need for water and electricity for the rural communities and started planning the logistics of running a Saha Global Leadership Program in each specific region.
For the final round of the competition, they will take all that information one step further to pitch a 10 day scouting plan for our team to follow this summer. They have to plan where would we fly into, the in-country transportation logistics required to reach rural communities, and select an area for our headquarters, as well as anticipate what we should expect in the communities as far as water and electricity access goes. We will follow the plan closely as we travel to each country to get a sense of what a Saha water or solar business in the country might look like and how we could bring Field Reps to that country.
On May 31st the Finalists will pitch their plans for Saha Global’s expansion for Cambodia, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Panama & Peru and our panel of judges will decide which countries’ plans will be put into action this Summer; getting us that much closer to a final decision to be made in the Fall!
Our field reps have done an incredible job thus far and we are so excited for this part of the competition! Join us and dream up the possibilities of Saha expanding into Cambodia, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Panama & Peru! This is event open to the public! RSVP HERE!
