This week was a big week for celebrations here at CWS. Reports are in that the benefit in Boston was a great success and an amazing evening in general. All of us here in Tamale wish we could have attended and are really thankful for all the generosity and support from the ever-growing circle of CWS friends and family.
We also had a fun “Graduation Goat Roast” to celebrate field staffer TJ’s recent degree in Management Studies here at the CWS Ghana office. In the spirit of honoring TJ’s big accomplishment, I though I’d continue my updates from the field with another staff profile, and, without further ado:
Mr. Sulemana Tijani
Sulemana Tijani (or ‘TJ’ to us clumsy-tonged salamingas) was born in Tamale and has lived here all his life. He has two sisters. He just earned a business degree in Management Studies from Tamale Polytechnic, and he hopes to bring these newly-certified skills with him to the job.
Some fun facts about TJ:
Favorite Hairstyle: “sakura – removing every hair from your head”. Yes, he is currently bald.
He has one ear pierced. He got it done in senior high “because I was a star and wanted to look like one”. TJ’s mother and mine share similar views on secret ear-piercings, however, so he doesn’t wear it much anymore.
In junior and senior high TJ played soccer/football for his school. His position was striker, and his all-star inspiration is Lionel Messi (Barcelona) and Dede Ayew (Ghana Black Stars and Marseille). He scored 22 goals in his career.
Favorite Singer: Akon
Favorite Food: Banku and hot Pepe
Favorite TV show: “Spartacus: Blood and Sand”
If he was an animal, he says he would be a cow.
Favorite Color: Black
TJ is also a recent Facebook convert, so if you would like to keep in touch “Friend” him there!
The First Annual Community Water Solutions Benefit was a huge success! We had such a great time celebrating CWS’ first 3 years and raised $10,000 for our cause! We can’t wait to share the awesome photos by April K!
We’d like to thank all of the amazing people who helped to make this event possible, especially our supporting sponsors: Eaton Vance Investments and Foley Hoag, LLC; our awesome performers: Sid Sriram, Overboard, and the LE Project; our great beverage sponsors: The Boston Beer Company, Trader Joes, Bullard’s Market and Package Store, Palumbo Liquors, Upper Falls Wine and Liquors, Hanover Wine and Spirits, and the Medfield Wine Shoppe; Warren Anderson for putting together both of the awesomeCWS Videos; all of our amazing donors who contributed items to the silent auction; the incredibly hardworking event committee: Sarah Wood, Mike Kearney, Sarah Fletcher, Karla Franco, Guillermo Guitierrez, and Vanessa Green; and of course, the W Hotel who generously donated the event-space and were wonderful to work with.
Finally, we would like to thank everyone who attended the Benefit. It was so great to share this special evening with all of you. We are so grateful for your support!
Thats right folks! The CWS Benefit is just 9 short days away so get your tickets today before they sell out!
Performances by Sid Sriram and the LE Project, an awesome silent auction, and FREE beer and wine (thank you to our sponsors!). You don’t want to miss this event!
Here are just some of the awesome items that we are going to be auctioning off:
A two night stay Smyth-Thompson Hotel in NYC
A 3 night stay at the PGA National Resort & Spa, with golf each day!
Tickets to Boston Red Sox including Infield Passes during batting practice!
Zimbabwe Sculpture
Blue Jeans Bar Private Shopping evening including beer wine for a group of 10-20
And remember – all proceeds go to help these cuties get safe drinking water:
Unfortunately, we faced some unexpected setbacks this week. Don’t panic! The villages continue to do great work. It was our transportation, the weather and sometimes even our own bodies that didn’t seem to be cooperating. All are par for the course though, as those of you who have spent any time here can attest.
The silver lining to these (sometimes literally) cloudy days was my chance to spent quality time with CWS’ field staff, who can handle just about any problem fate throws their way. This morning I found myself sitting in a compound chatting with Wahab, and we decided that this week’s update from the field would be devoted to this most elusive of staffers. Don’t let his initial shyness deter you! Wahab kept me laughing all morning, and is a demon on the moto. For more about our always trendy translator, read on:
Mr. Abdul Wahab Lawal
Wahab was born and raised in Tamale and has lived in the same house all his life. He is the baby of the family, with two older brothers and three older sisters. His favorite place to visit is Accra – his sister lives near the beach and he goes every Sunday he is in town. He joined the CWS team in October 2010, after working as a small business owner.
Favorite Movie: Home Alone (Most Recent Viewing: last night)
Favorite TV Show: Prison Break (Wahab knows more about the California State Penitentiary System than should be legal).
Favorite Color: Cream (He just painted his room – you guessed it – cream).
Its hard to believe that its been two whole weeks without the fellows here! Shak, Peter, Wahab, TJ and I really miss their help and insight and entertainment. Luckily all groups did a wonderful job implementing, so monitoring the new seven has been a breeze.
We’ve also spent a lot of time back in the older villages, which we didn’t get to see much of during the fellowship period. In Zanzugu-Yipela, we constructed a rainwater catchment center that will help the village with its first rainy season (pictures to follow as soon as camera malfunctions are dealt with), and everybody is really excited about the new addition! Gbong’s rain catchment center is also up and running – just in time for the big storms that blow through now. We have also been having community meetings in many of the older villages, to talk about everything from rainwater collection to group problem solving, and it has been great to get to know familiar faces from the villages a little bit better.
In my first couple weeks on the job, I’ve really been struck by the profound impact the fellows in particular have on their adopted villages. Kids in newer villages are still doing the handshakes and back-flips the Summer 2011 Fellows taught them, and the people I meet doing household visits in older ones still can remember the excitement of opening day and tell me the importance of a special drinking water cup. Many of the older fellowship villages have asked about fellows by name and have hilarious stories to tell us about implementation. As a fellowship alumnus myself, its good to know that the tremendous energy fellows and locals alike put into passing out buckets and transcending language barriers and problem-solving in traditional committees has been channeled into something that seems to be lasting.
Beer from Sam Adams’, live music performed by the LE Project, photos snapped by the lovely April K, and some amazing auction items…you don’t want to miss this event!
The 2011 Summer Fellows on their last morning in Tamale! (Not Pictured: Chris Sweeny who took the bus that morning)
One week ago today, the 28 CWS Summer Fellows packed up their bags and left Tamale. This summers’ program was a huge success, largely due to the incredible determination of each of our Fellows! Working in the field is not always easy, but each Fellowship team persevered through a variety of different challenges and were able to reach their goal: bringing safe water to a entire community of people who desperately needed it. Thanks to our awesome Fellows, over 3,300 people in 7 different villages in rural Ghana now have access to clean drinking water; over 14 women now have new jobs, running the CWS water businesses, which in most cases leads to a 100% increase their families’ income; and more than 1,000 children under the age of 5, who were previously at risk dying from waterborne disease, are now drinking safe water. Thats pretty amazing!
Kendra, Javier, Kelsey, Jess, Hudson, Chris, Ianthe, Sharifa, Meaghan, Will, Abby, Alyssa, Nate, Ben, Christine, Annie, Abena, Steph, David, Matthew, Christy, Karina, Matt, Nadiah, Heather, Xi, Christina, and Cassie – We are so proud of the work that you accomplished during your time in Ghana. It was a joy to work with each of you and watch you grow into incredibly patient, hardworking, and plucky leaders. We are lucky to have you as a part of the CWS team and can’t wait to see the amazing things that you will achieve in the future!
Hey there from the Village Elders,
We and our translator T.J. opened our beautiful new water treatment center at Gbanteni this past Friday and have since then been making trips to our village to check up on them! We’re lucky we implemented when we did because with the rainy season coming and the precarious spots on the rocky dirt road, travel to our village will soon be nearly impossibly (unless you swim). On the up side, since it is so far out in the country, it is one of the prettiest villages and we loved working there! Here’s what we’ve seen over the past few days:
We have been around to talk to all of the households to inspect their buckets to ensure that they are full of only clean water, there are no problems with the buckets, and they are happy with the new water. We’ve seen all of the usual suspects: broken and leaky taps, people who haven’t filled their buckets, people filling ‘illegal’ buckets (aka unclean buckets without a lid and a tap), and people hesitant to buy more water. However, after 3 days of thorough monitoring, we believe we have ironed out all of the kinks. We were proud when our chief suggested and our village agreed to implement a flat monthly fee rather than a pay per fill fee in order to solve some of these problems! We are hopeful this system will work for them. People have even bought extra buckets so they can have clean water when they are out at the farm for extended periods of time. Everyone’s been raving about how much the new water has made them feel better already! Word about the water has gotten out and a neighboring village has come to check it out and wants it in their village too; they were quickly added to the CWS list of villages and will hopefully get clean water soon!
Kendra hard at work in the field doing household monitoring!
T.J. and the team fixing a leaky tap
We are confident that the women selected to run the center will do a wonderful job. They are respected in the community and were familiar with the use of alum (one of the chemicals used to clean the water). They have successfully been treating the water since opening day. They seem committed to working at the center and are even stronger than the man in our group; they can carry 30L buckets on their heads and Javier couldn’t quite master that one… In fact, one of the women managed to fill all 3 of the 200L buckets today by herself!
The women filling the polytank!
Even the children are learning a lot about clean water! While somewhat shy when we first arrived a few weeks ago, they now run to the car when we arrive and follow us around the village wherever we go. It was also customary at first to see them drinking dugout water but there is nothing more exciting than seeing them drink clean, clear water from the center out of a water bottle we gave them. Just yesterday, we saw a girl with a bottle of dugout water and we disciplined her in English and although she couldn’t understand our language, between the gestures and the kids understanding why we are there, the group of kids told the girl to dump out the dugout water. They really are beginning to understand the importance of ONLY DRINKING CLEAN WATER!
Some of the familiar faces that have been following us around
Today was a bittersweet day. It was our last visit to Gbateni and while we are ecstatic that they are becoming self-sufficient regarding clean water, it was very hard to leave these people we have come to know so well over the past few weeks. When we first arrived the chief said “I would offer you some water but we only have dugout water.” We left them today knowing they have a clean, safe, sustainable source of water for their community. The chief, his wife, and everyone who saw us off were beyond grateful. We took some final photos by their brand new CWS sign! We gave them a few photos and small gifts and plan to mail even more! It was wonderful to work with a village that was so enthusiastic about clean water and health and we will definitely be tracking the progress of our village in the future.
The team with Chief Kasullan Fuseini and the new sign in front of Gbateni
-Kelsey. Javier, Jess and Kendra
P.S. We’ll also miss T.J. tons. His singing, dancing, smiling, tardiness, and willingness to eat all the time (particularly bread with us on the road!).
Hello from Team Six, better known as Team Kasi or Team Sixey. We have been working for the past couple weeks in Kudula, a fairly large village of just over 100 households and two schools, about a half hour away from Tamale. So far we’ve had a pretty smooth ride, except for a few days where the villagers were at the market or the farm. This caused us to have to push back our opening day to Friday June 10th as opposed to the original Thursday celebration. However, since we were already ahead of schedule it wasn’t a problem. Our team faces the challenge of reaching out to every household in our particularly large village, but luckily we have Lukeman, our wonderful translator, and our fantastic taxi driver Hamza who also happens to speak English to help us along the way. When we opened yesterday, we only saw about 30-40 buckets being filled out of our 100+ that we had distributed, so we went to the village today for our first day of monitoring and household visits ready to do some sleuthing to find out why only some of the village came out.
We were very pleasantly surprised today to see that all the households that we visited had filled up their water containers! It turns out that most of them came in the evening after we had left. Kudula is officially a success! The houses that we visited were all very pleased with the water taste and very grateful for the work that we had done in Kudula. We will be back tomorrow to fix a few leaky taps and do some more random household checks. In each household we took water samples to bring back to the office to test for coliforms.
Nadiah and Christina testing the samples at the CWS lab
Sana and Abibata are our two women who run the station. They’ve been doing a fantastic job and seem to really be catching on quickly to everything we’ve told them. We have full faith in them and their abilities to continue the station after we leave!
A group shot of Team Sixey in front of the polytank stand. From left, Hamza, Nadiah, Sana, Abibata, Matt, Lukeman, Karina, and Christina.
It’s amazing how quickly the polystand goes up! Just a few days ago it looked like this:
Matt, Hamza, and Lukeman take a break from working on the polytank stand before it was finished.
During our down time in the village we’ve really gotten to know the kids and their individual personalities. They have endless energy and are so fun to be with. We will miss them so much when we go!
Christina hangs out with some of her buddies outside the chief’s palaceKarina with lots of the Kudula kids chilling on the taxi
We even got to try our hand at the local method of carrying water-on top of your head!
Nadiah learns from the pros
We look forward to seeing more results of all of our hard work when we continue to do more household visits and monitoring in the next few days.
Due to some technical difficulties this post is a few days late, but here is team 2 (“nothing but net”)’s story about training the women in Kushini to prepare for opening day (which happened on Thursday!)
Today, we performed our second day of training for the women. To this point, they have already fetched the water from the dugout and have used allum to separate the dirt from the water. Today, they moved the separated water into the polytank and added aquatabs (chlorine) to kill the bacteria and other harmful agents in the water. The women are not only exceptionally responsible, but catch on to the training extremely quickly. Often before we could finish explaining the process to them they were able to finish our sentences. After preparing the water in the polytank, they also refilled the blue drums and treated them with allum so that we could have even more clean water for tomorrow’s opening day.
Hudson and Shak training the women in our village
We also performed our final round of distributing clean water storage buckets for households in the village. When we first arrived to the village it was monsooning (of course, we forgot our rain coats at home), but once the rain cleared the entire village was able to gather and be trained on the proper water safety requirements for the clean water buckets. Sharifa spent a lot of time giving advice to the women (with Shak translating) while Hudson, Chris, and Ianthe worked quickly to assemble buckets for the masses. Training the women was a detailed process – Sharifa went over everything from how and where to get clean water to proper placement of the buckets in the home to how to respond to contaminations. The women took the process very seriously and echoed what the Chief had already told us: “We know that the dugout water is unhealthy, but we have no other option for drinking water.” In all the experience was really touching to see how seriously the village is taking this process and we’re really excited for opening day tomorrow!
Shak translating while the team assembles and distributes safe storage containers.
