When it comes to the fellowship program, I get stoked! As the Director of Operations at CWS, a large part of my job is to organize the fellowship programs. For months, we prepare: travelling all over the U.S. to recruit, interviewing applicants, making all appropriate accommodations, interviewing new translators and figuring out potential new villages. When all is in place, we head over to Ghana for 3 weeks empowering woman and in turn, bringing clean drinking water to rural community, which was once without.
We get the most awesome young people (and I mean, I’m not joking, AWESOME!!) from all around the world together to make a lasting difference. The fellows are what makes the “CWS world” go round! They are the pure reason why we are able to do what we do. Without them we are just a team of 8, but with them we become a team 30-48! Power in numbers!
This summer we will be bringing 25 fellows to Ghana. Within a matter of a week, these fellows will become experts in the field. From there they set up a chief meeting, pitch the CWS model, train two woman in the community how to run the CWS business and BAM!!—a community that once was drinking fecally contaminated water is given a clean drinking water source.
Along with the village implementation, fellows are able to provide for us, they also bring the energy! They keep it fresh and bring the spunk! The energy that they have spills, not only into the villages, but onto the CWS Team! They provide us with a fresh prospective, a ton of laughs and an energy that persists long after they leave Ghana!
2013 Summer Fellows we can’t wait to finally meet you in Ghana! ONLY 5 MORE WEEKS AWAY! Lets do this!!
Women fetching water from the remaining water in Jagberin’s dugout, last dry season. This year, Jagberin’s dugout never totally dried up like this. – Photo credit Kathryn Padgett
The rains have come early in Tamale this year. In the Northern Region of Ghana, the dry season usually lasts from October until June and the rainy season usually lasts from June until September. But this year that has not been the case. We received our first rains in Tamale starting in March, which is abnormal for the region. And it has been raining frequently, which makes it seem like the rainy season is in full swing. All over the world, global climate change has altered weather patterns, posing a threat to ecosystems, agriculture, the displacement of persons and access to water. While the cause of these specific rainfall changes in the Northern Region of Ghana is unknown, a recent NASA led study reports that global warming will have a large impact on the world’s precipitation patterns. The study states, “Areas projected to see the most significant increase in heavy rainfall are in the tropical zones around the equator, particularly in the Pacific Ocean and Asian monsoon regions.” Ghana is located in this tropical zone. CWS works in communities that get their water from dugouts or small ponds that fill up with rainwater each rainy season. These early rains have already had an impact on CWS operations in Ghana.
Djelo’s drying dugout in February. Djelo moved their center to a farther dugout, so that the entrepreneurs would have enough water to treat
Every year during the dry season, some CWS communities have to close their water treatment centers because their dugout water runs out. In April of this year, the dugout in Gbateni totally ran dry, while the dugouts in Nekpegu, Tohinaayili, Galinzegu and Jagberin were getting turbid on their way to running dry. Within a week of Gbateni’s dugout drying up, all of these communities received heavy rains. When we went back to Gbateni, Nekpegu, Tohinaayili, Galinzegu and Jagberin the following week, their dugouts were full with water. We had very few center closings due to dugouts drying up this year, which means more months of access to clean water for those communities to which this posed a threat.
Galinzegu’s dugout in January looking very turbid
When the roads start flooding from the rains, the CWS field staff can no longer access the roads to the villages, Buhijaa, Gbateni or Chanaayili. This usually doesn’t happen until June. Starting in April, we were unable to get to Buhijaa and the road to Gbateni was already getting muddy. We’re hoping that the rains hold out for a few weeks so we can prep these villages with aquatabs before the paths are totally impenetrable for the rest of the season.
Memounatu of Buhijaa pumps borehole water into her safe storage container. CWS field staff cannot reach Buhijaa because the road is too flooded. As of the last visit in April, they still had borehole water.
I asked the CWS field staff what they thought about the early rains. Peter said, “It must be climate change, this weather is so strange.” Amin explained it in a different way, “Last year it didn’t rain much so this year the rains came early. That’s just how it is.”
Shak monitored Jabayili and Yakura, two communities implemented in June 2012, and asked the women how their sales were going. Fati and Memouna of Jabayili reported that sales have slowed down, everyone has started to collect rainwater. This is typical community behavior for CWS villages but rainwater collection usually doesn’t start until June. So the entrepreneurs have fewer months of having high center sales this year, since most people opt for collecting rainwater for free over paying for water at the center.
Rainwater collected in a pot for household consumption
Recently during household monitoring in Tindan, Wahab spoke to Arishetu, one of the women who runs the water business in the community. She told him that he would not meet all of the women at home to talk to them about their clean water. Now that it has started raining, everyone will be on their farms planting groundnuts and yams. These crops apparently only need a few rains before you can start planting.
The CWS field staff has noticed that there are less people to meet in the communities for household monitoring. This means coming across empty households and only being able to speak with the children, nursing women or the older people who are staying back from the farms. But the rains have not affected farming schedules beyond groundnuts and yams. It seems like people are holding out on planting corn and other crops until they are sure the rains will last. As rural farmers without access to changing weather pattern data, their farming yields are left to chance, especially with abnormal rains.
With an average of 1-2 rains a week in Tamale, it seems like the rains are here to stay and it’s only the first week in May! So far the early rains have had a positive impact on CWS water treatment centers. Very few centers ran out of water to treat this year. But who knows what future obstacles CWS and the CWS communities will face when struck with changing, unpredictable precipitation patterns.
Our team was completely overwhelmed by the sheer number of people who donated to the campaign, tweeted, emailed, “liked” and shared the link! We are so grateful for your support. Thanks to your help, we were able to raise $18,314 in 5 short weeks! Amazing!
These funds will allow us to finalize our expansion to Salaga in time to host our first two teams of Community Water Solutions Fellows this Summer. The Salaga Fellowship Program will take place from June 19th – July 10th. We will be posting updates on the CWS blog through the entire program so be sure to check back for updates!
Over the next few weeks we will be working on sending out your perks, so be on the lookout for a fun package in the mail from CWS.
This spring, Community Water Solutions’ Executive Director, was invited to speak at Middlebury’s TEDx Conference. The theme of the conference was “The Road Not Taken” and Kate spoke about the changes in her career path that led her to Ghana and then told the story of CWS’ trials in buying a truck in order to reach more areas of Ghana. Check out her inspirational talk below!
Being in Ghana for 10 months now, I have had the chance to see other water NGOs in action. While I have seen some other NGOs doing great work, I have also seen broken borehole pumps and broken or inefficient filters. In the NGO water sector, there is a sustainability problem. According to the January 2011 WASH Sustainability Forum Report (cited below), “Less than five percent of water and sanitation projects are revisited after project conclusion and less than one percent of such projects have any long-term monitoring at all.”
CWS is part of that five percent and one percent of organizations that continue to monitor even after implementation. CWS will not work in a new community unless it has the funding to follow-up and monitor the business for a minimum of 5 years. By follow up and monitor, we mean visiting the newly implemented community once a week for the first 6 months of access and then at least one to three times a month until they reach the 5-year mark. During each community visit, the CWS field staff observes the clean water level at the water treatment center, holds meetings with the water business entrepreneurs and then conducts six household surveys to evaluate the water treatment center’s performance.
Amin and I talking to Sofou, one of the water business entrepreneurs in Nyamaliga. Nyamaliga was implemented in 2010, making it the oldest CWS community and will be the first village to reach the “5-year mark”.Household visits! Checking the safe storage container to see if there is clean water inside.
So what happens when a community reaches the 5-year mark? The idea is that the water businesses will be self-sufficient and will be able to operate without monitoring. As of right now, CWS will still sell these 5-year mark communities aquatabs to treat the water and be on call for any water business emergencies. No community has reached that mark just yet but we are in the process of prepping our villages to get there. CWS has started a “Village Independence Ranking System” to evaluate which villages can operate successfully without frequent monitoring (as in one to three times a month). The system ranks CWS water businesses based on their performance since implementation taking into consideration: water business sales, blue drum and polytank water levels, how the entrepreneurs handle minor problems on their own, how a village handles rainwater, household visit results and whether entrepreneurs are able to pay for business supplies on their own.
The CWS Village Independence Ranking System
Our first batch of villages to be deemed independent was in November 2012. Chani, Kpalguni, Kpalung and Wambong were the first villages to become “independent”, meaning that the CWS field staff now visits these four villages once a month instead of the usual one to three times a month. All of the water business entrepreneurs have a CWS field staff’s cell phone number to call in case they have any problems such as running out of aquatabs or if their polytank is leaking. In January 2013, CWS added Kurugu Vohoyili and Cheko to this list.
We were not really sure how the businesses would perform once CWS spent less time in these communities. But the results have been very positive! All of these centers have been up and running since they became “independent”, sales are high in all of them and household visit results have been consistent with their previous history.
Abiba, the new water business entrepreneur in Cheko
One of the more memorable monitoring visits I had was in Cheko with my co-worker Amin. This past month we went to monitor for the first time since February. It had been a full month. We first stopped to check out the water treatment center. The polytank was completely full. This is always a good sign when monitoring because you know there is lots of clean water available (about 1,200 L in this case). Then we went to talk to Kukuoona, the water business entrepreneur in Cheko. Amin and I got to her house only to find out that she had moved to Tamale to live with her son! We were shocked because Kukuoona has worked with CWS for so long, we never thought she would leave. The woman we talked to pointed us to another compound and told us that Abiba was now running the center. So off we went to find Abiba. She was home, which is always great news. Abiba was glad to finally meet us because she just ran out of aquatabs that day. She told us that she had been running the water treatment center for the past month and that Kukuoona trained her to run it well. Abiba said sales were still high and household visits proved her story to be true! Amin and I drove back to Tamale happy as clams. Even without frequent monitoring, these centers are still running independently and successfully.
Amin checks the polytank water level in Nekpegu
After this upcoming fellowship in summer 2013, it will be time again to evaluate six more villages to be put into this independent category. The CWS field staff enjoy going to these villages because they perform so well, so it will be sad to only go once a month. But the good news is that the system is working and when those first villages reach the 5-year mark, I know they will be ready!
-Brianán
Summary Report from the WASH Sustainability Forum January 2011: http://globalwaterchallenge.org/resources/SustainabilityForum/WASHSustainabilityForumReport.pdf
“NGO Water Sector Confronts Sustainability Problem” – Article by Maia Booker and Peter Sawyer – http://pulitzercenter.org/articles/world-water-day-wash-sustainability-forum-report
We are so excited to introduce our 2013 Summer Fellows! We have an awesome group together and are so excited to launch new water businesses and bring clean drinking water to more people. We can’t wait to be in Ghana with all of you in June. It is going to be a blast!
This Summer we are extremely excited to announce that we will be having two programs in Ghana, our usual program in Tamale and a smaller program in Salaga. The Salaga program was not advertised but offered to Fellow Alums and applicants with significant travel experience, as the program takes place in a more rural area. We will all be arriving in Accra together, participating in orientation together in Tamale, and then will be off implementing in Tamale and Salaga (which is about 3.5 hours away).
Without further ado, here are our 2013 Summer Fellows:
Angela Agnese
Bridgid Reardon
Bryan Rezende
Bryant Foreman
Carole Anne Spohn
Caroline Collins
Casey Kortarba
Daniela Barajas
Dori Nguyen
Eda Reed
Ethan Earl
Hailey Kwon
Jacob Fisher
Jhanel Chew
Katie Rumer
Kristen Abel
Lilly Prince
Lucas Hilsbos
Maxine Auzerais
Renee Lacroix
Sandra Mancilla
Sarah Fukui
Stephanie Wilson
Taylor Kirby
Victoria Leonard
Interested in joining us on a fellowship program? Learn more information here.
I love our logo and I throw it on everything, so getting it on our business signboards was long overdue! Talented local artist Osfa paints a sign for each of our 49 businesses and was more than happy to break out the sky blue for the newest one in Jarayili.
What do you think?
-Kathryn
The posse poses in front of Jarayili’s new sign! This village is so small that busses forget to stop here and giving directions is difficult… or WAS before this beauty!
Hamza, our faithful taxi driver, gets in on the actionByebye-oh!
The CWS Tamale Staff and Water Business Entrepreneurs
March 22, 2013 — Today the CWS Tamale staff hosted 15 water business entrepreneurs at the CWS office to celebrate World Water Day. This is a tradition at CWS. Every year on World Water Day a selected group of women are invited! Now that CWS has 49 water businesses with about 90+ entrepreneurs*, how do we choose which entrepreneurs to invite? This task wasn’t easy because the staff has their favorites! Personally, I’m all for inviting the women from Kpachiyili every year… I guess I’m partial to my fellowship village (aren’t we all?). If Amin had it is way, Ayi from Yakura would be top of the list. But with only 6 staff members in Tamale, it would not be feasible to invite them all.
Affilua from Kpanayili poses with the newest member of CWS, Dauphine!
We agreed that we should invite a diverse group of entrepreneurs… Some entrepreneurs who run really successful water businesses, some entrepreneurs that have problems with their water businesses and finally some older villages and newly implemented ones. The list was made. We invited the entrepreneurs from Kpalbusi, Kpanayili, Tacpuli, Chani, Zanzagu Yipela, Kadula, Yipela and Nekpegu! Some of these villages are 2 hours away from Tamale, so the logistics of getting all of the entrepreneurs to the office at the same time were complicated. But the staff worked together and managed to get them here before the presentations began!
This year for World Water Day we focused on bringing the entrepreneurs together so they could learn from the successes and failures of each other. The CWS Tamale staff, Kathryn, Peter, Shak, Wahab, Amin and myself, have been planning this day for over a month. Shak, Peter, Amin and Wahab put together an interactive presentation to share their insights as field staff members and to engage the women in conversation.
Amin, otherwise known as “KG”, gives the introduction. He shared a poem about the importance of water at the end of the presentation. It was beautiful!
As field staff, we’re in the villages every day meeting with the entrepreneurs. We listen to their problems, ask them their opinions and give them advice on how to fix them. But we’re not the ones carrying 40 L garrawas from the dugouts into the blue drums day in and day out. Sometimes it’s more powerful to hear advice from other water business entrepreneurs. Wahab focused his presentation on household hygiene and center upkeep. He asked the women, “How do you keep the clean water at your centers from getting contaminated?” At first, there were crickets, no one spoke. But the young Binto from Yipela was courageous and spoke first. She talked about thoroughly cleaning the blue drums and the polytank before every treatment. This really broke the ice for all of the other entrepreneurs who gladly jumped in to add to the discussion. Every single woman spoke or responded to a question throughout the presentation. They were really into it!
Wahab starts off by introducing himself…
One of the themes CWS touched upon this year at World Water Day was, “Running the Water Businesses like Businesses”. Shak led the discussion on this subject. The entrepreneurs that run their water treatment centers as businesses perform the highest. They have the most customers, they treat the most water, they earn the highest profits and their centers stay open for more months out of the year. Of course, many of the entrepreneurs do have moral ties to selling clean drinking water to their communities. But when an altruistic motivation is what drives the center, the women are more likely to sell water for free or pull money from their own pockets to keep the centers running. This isn’t sustainable in the long run.
The CWS staff decided to invite Fati and Ramatu from the newly implemented Nekpegu. After only 2 months since opening day, they are already earning high profits. Shak invited Ramatu to come to the front and share her strategies on operating these centers like businesses. She explained to the women that she always keeps water in her polytank, she has a big opening day every Friday and the women keep track of the households to make sure that everyone is coming. If ever they have a problem, they incorporate the chairman, who has more pull in influencing village behavior. It was awesome! She was really comfortable in front of the big crowd.
Ramatu of Nekpegu speaks in front of all of the entrepreneurs about ways to run these centers like businesses!
The UN declared that World Water Day 2013 would be the International Year of Water Cooperation, so I find it fitting that the staff came together this year with the water business entrepreneurs. Shak always says, ” We (the staff) are not the ones drinking water in these villages.” He’s right. We don’t drink the water, we don’t know what it’s like to live in a village, and we don’t have all the answers. But by incorporating the entrepreneurs into the conversation, we might just be onto something here.
-Brianán
The women entrepreneurs who attended the CWS World Water Day Conference this year.
* The number of entrepreneurs running the water businesses is not fixed. Some women quit to focus on other priorities like farming or taking care of their families. Other times, women are added… more hands make for lighter work!
We’re taking a break from our regularly scheduled posting about Salamatu’s Story to remind everyone that applications for the CWS Summer Fellowship Program are due TOMORROW, March 15th at 5pm est.
This is your chance to sit with a chief and help him bring clean water to his people. This is your chance to build a business with two women that will improve the health of their school boys and girls. This is your chance to hold fresh babies and make sure they never have to drink water that is anything but clean.
Community Water Solutions has some EXCITING NEWS….
This morning we launched a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo in an effort to raise funds for our expansion in Ghana! For more details, check out our beautiful new video featuring Salamatu, one of the woman entrepreneurs in Chani, and considering supporting our cause!
A HUGE thanks to Phil Wall for directing and producing Salamatu’s Story, Lucy Parker Randall for capturing such beautiful photographs and videos of our work in Ghana, and Pete Seibert for composing the most perfect score for this video! You guys rock our world!
