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Voices from the field: Team 4!

On Saturday, Team 4 opened the new water treatment center at the village of Zanzugu. The team was led by its trusty translator, Shak, and was prepared for hectic day after hearing the tale of Team 1’s opening day.  Upon arriving at Zanzugu after their daily 45-minute ride in Shak’s trusty Nissan Suzuki, the team had their daily meeting with the chief.  The chief promptly expressed his excitement over opening and quickly mobilized the community to meet the treatment center.  The team was assured that once the drums sounded, the village would flock to the shiny new Rambo 100 Polytank to fill their safe storage buckets and to quench their thirst.

 

The Zanzugu chief

Upon the team’s arrival at the treatment center, the two women chosen to run the center were already scooping the alum-treated dugout water from the glistening blue drums into the polytank.  Three Aquatabs completed the simple but powerful recipe for clean water and the tap started flowing. Bucket after bucket arrived. The chief and the elders of the village overlooked as family after family approached the tap, paid their 10 pesawas and collected their clean drinking water.  All of a sudden, a band of drummers gathered villagers by the central tree and organically a dance circle came to fruition.  Even a few leaky buckets could disrupt the rhythm of the line as the team efficiently monitored the opening sales and fixed any minor mishaps.  A controlled chaos swarmed the polytank as about 58 families fetched their water.

 

The crowd at opening Day in Zanzugu

 

Buckets lined up ready to be filled with clean drinking water

Though unforeseen circumstances kept a handful of families from receiving clean water, the women were more than happy to reopen the treatment center the following day, excited to fully own and run the sustainable clean water business.  The team would like to thank their excellent translator Shak, who skillfully led them through each step of the process and made implementation in Zanzugu a success.  Additionally, the team is grateful for all those donors who made this treatment center possible through their support and generosity.

 

Team 4, Marlene, Kevin, Chris and Allie with our trusty translator Shak!

-Team 4: Marlene, Kevin, Chris, Allie (and Shak!)

Coming up next: Pictures from Session 2!

Voices from the field: Team 1

Opening Day!! Naaaaaaahhhh.

Chani is a small and quiet village. The chief, supposedly 150 years old, has been sick for a few days so we had been unable to meet with him until yesterday afternoon. He gave us a short blessing and thanked us for working there. The other villagers were extremely receptive and helpful as we built the center and distributed buckets. Selamatu and Muneera, the women running our center, are diligent workers; they learned quickly and are proud of their role managing the center. Everything pretty much went off without a hitch as we prepared for the big morning.

Muneera and Selamatu hard at work.

Immediately upon our arrival a few men approached asking to purchase additional buckets. There was also a fancy-schmancy educated man who had been in town the day we distributed so he was eager to get his safe-storage container. As we waited for Selamatu and Muneera, children and women crowded around with their buckets; everyone was clearly super pumped for the “pure wata.” Down at the center we were quickly surrounded by blue buckets and people, more of a mob than a queue. The children and a few fellows were clapping and making music which added to the festive mood.

Buckets all lined up, ready for the center to open!

Once the water started flowing it became apparent that many of the buckets were leaking at the tap. This caused a slight delay – which could have been debilitating at a larger village – as we retightened all the taps with pliers provided by the villagers themselves. Along with the inordinate number of people who wanted to buy additional buckets, the tap tightening was our largest hiccup. The villagers, of course, were chiller than FanMilk – they couldn’t have cared less about the pause. Patience and a constant willingness to lend a hand seem to be the pervading Ghanaian virtues.

Muneera doles out the first flow of pure water at Chani!!!

Wahab, our awesome-sauce all-star translator extraordinaire, was equal parts assistant and leader. He was darting back and forth between problems, often translating two different conversations simultaneously. What a baller. The concrete stand he built is enormous and crafted to perfection, fully blowing those of other villages out of the water (pun intended). Wahab takes an obvious pride in his work.

Wahab working on our ridiculously large stand a few days before.

We thought the stand was perhaps a wee bit too gigantic but it ended up coming in handy when the women decided to put the tubs on top of it as well (right next to the Polytank) to avoid the swarming hordes of ants discovered beneath them.

Swarming hordes is an understatement, there was a ridiculous number of ants.

To exterminate them, a nearby dude instantly lit some grass on fire and started brushing it over the former colony. We were a little thrown off guard by the flames but not a Chanian batted an eye; it was as though fire was the instinctual solution to the problem. Ghanaians are so bad-ass.

Happy children dancing on opening day.
AWESOME SITE!!!

Walking back to the taxi, reflecting on our efforts of the past few days, we all felt an overwhelming sense of fulfillment. The work has been, without a doubt, one of the most gratifying of all possible experiences. Like Mike said, the world seems to smile on days like today. Awesomeness abounds for Team C.L.E.A.N.

Naoonitibeow,

Catherine, Heather, Mira and Luke

 

 

 

Voices from the field: Team 2!

Day 3 of Implementation: Building Stand in Yipela/Distributing Storage Containers

Today was amazing.  It is hard to believe we could top the past week of awesome events and yet we have.  The people of Team 2 and the village of Yipela, especially the women, made it super special.  In the morning we built the stand for our polytank.  Our village really took ownership of the project.  We traced and retraced the design in the sand where the men had chosen to build the center.  Nearly 15 men came down to assemble the stand’s walls, cutting the cement bricks as needed.  Then came the cement.  The men said that Sarah and Hannah did not need to help because they were women and visitors, but Hanna would not take “no” for an answer.  As  Hannah used her hands to cement the bricks together, Sarah and a woman from the village jumped in, too.  This woman was superwoman #1 of the day.  She did the work just like the village men even though she was the only woman and she is going to help run the center.

Our surprise of the morning was receiving the household list we’d requested in our chief meeting the previous day.  We did not have 30 or 40 families, but 128 – a number nearly double what CWS had thought was most likely the village size!  So, we returned in the afternoon with Wahab, a second translator, over 100 safe storage containers, and Cam’s brilliant plan for mass distribution.  Nearly 300 people – men, women and children – gathered around the tree to hear Cam and TJ’s initial speech about how to use the “special containers for drinking water.”  Then we moved right into phase two: distribution.  TJ called out names and handed out buckets before sending people in groups of 10 to Cam.  Then Cam and Wahab reiterated the rules before people brought the buckets home.  It was so exciting to watch children running into the distance carrying a bright blue bucket.  Meanwhile, Nate, Sarah and Hannah had an extremely efficient assembly line going.  Nate cut the buckets open, Hannah taped the taps, and Sarah screwed the taps into the buckets.  In the middle of this process, we met superwoman #2.  This awesome woman danced her way from the crowd to TJ and continued dancing all the way to Cam.  She was probably around 55 years old and got the whole village cheering!

By the end of the day, Cam’s voice was hoarse and Nate, Sarah, and Hannah had  extremely sore hands.  But it was well worth it.  We had handed out nearly 70 buckets! We probably did the last 15 by flashlight before calling it a night.  We drove home giddy with excitement, listening to the only song that plays without skipping of the truck’s cds on repeat.  Team 2 has now heard the same Don Carlos song for 6 hours and the only line we can decipher is, “I woke up this morning.”  Who could have predicted the day we would have when we woke up this morning?!  We cannot wait for tomorrow! 🙂

– Team 2: Cam, Hannah, Nate & Sarah

 

Village volunteer takes ownership

 

Figuring out the bricks

 

Everyone building with cement

 

Hannah and Sarah with cement
Truck filled with buckets

 

 

The initial speech
The crowd

 

Sarah with buckets

 

Nate labeling

 

Working by flashlight

Voices from the field: Team 3!

Day 2 of Implementation: Community Meeting/Building Stand in Kpallabisi

Today we met with our whole community for the first time. Our village, called Kpallabisi, has about 150 households, so over 100 people turned out to hear us discuss our project.  Our translator, Peter, got to make use of the village megaphone to help Lauren explain the basics about the treatment center purification process and safe storage system.  We fielded a lot of thoughtful questions about the business model and potential problems.  It was really great to see how excited and invested everyone seemed to be even at this early stage!  We asked everyone to carefully consider our proposal and let us know if they were interested in working with us.  We must have said something right because the announcement that we would be back later in the afternoon to start work if they were interested was met with a round of applause!

That afternoon, with the approval of the chief (such a boss with a great sense of humor and future husband of team member, Kathryn) the elders and the rest of the village, we started work constructing Kpallabisi’s polytank stand.  Some men, including the village mason, and our now daily entourage of children gathered around the current village water source, a silty dugout, and chose the site for the center.  In a classic MacGyver move, one man fashioned a make-shift compass from 2 sticks and string and outlined the stand with a perfect circle.  The mason, with some help from everyone else, threw together an impressive stand skeleton from some bricks and concrete.  Everyone was laughing and joking.  The girls got some marriage proposals and arranged a suitor dance-off for the next day to help ease their weighty decision. 🙂  Even Jim got an offer from a 10-year old boy to be “married as friends”.  Moms and Dads, if we never come home, don’t worry.  It just means we’ve settled into Kpallabisi more thoroughly than we ever expected!!

“Good bye, bye bye” – Team 3: Jim, Elsie, Kathryn & Lauren

 

The village meeting!

 

Showing the village the test results.

 

Our yams from the chief!

 

Fashioning a makeshift compass to layout the center.

 

Children helping us carry supplies.

 

 

Cutting a brick to make the center.

 

The center begins to take shape!
Village men helping us build the center.

 

The village mason working on the center stand.

Day 4: The Teams Meet Their Villages and Catherine Arrives!

Day 4 began with Catherine finally arriving in Tamale after three flight delays due to the bad weather across the U.S.  She wasn’t given much time to settle in as the teams all departed that morning for their first visit to the villages in which they would hopefully be working.  Catherine met her team, Team 1, and was off.  For the first half of the day, the teams all took water samples from their village dugouts and attempted to schedule the first meeting with the village chief and elders for the next day.

Welcome, Catherine! The Winter Fellowship Session 1 is now complete!
Team 1 loads into their cab with their translator, Wahab, to go meet their village, Chani!
Team 2 loads into their taxi with their translator, TJ, and head out to meet their new village, Yipela!
Team 3 was paired up with the CWS pickup truck and Peter as their translator! They head out to meet their village, Kpallabisi!
Team 4 got the posh jeep with Shak as their translator. Heading out to meet their village, Zamzugu!

The teams all returned successful.  Many had informal meetings with the chief while they were in their villages that morning.  All of the teams scheduled an official meeting for the next morning.  The fellows returned from their village visits in great spirits and proceeded to test the samples they had taken from their village dugouts.  The next day they would bring the results with them to their chief meetings.

Heather helped explain the water testing to her newly arrived teammate.
Catherine caught on quickly and did her team's water tests from that morning.

 

Luke and Heather reading the results of the tests they'd performed yesterday.
Lauren had some trouble reading the lab results...

For the last part of the day, the teams went off with their translators to rehearse their upcoming chief meetings.  (Each team had selected one member to lead the meeting so as not to confuse the translator or intimidate the chief. ) We ended the day’s training with each team giving me one final run through of the meeting.

 

Team 2 working with TJ on their chief meeting the next morning. The team nominated Hanna to lead the meeting.

 

Team 3 working with Peter on their chief meeting. Lauren was nominated to lead the meeting.

 

Team 4 works with Shak on their chief meeting the next morning. The team decided that Kevin would lead the meeting.

 

Luke and Wahab simulate the full chief meeting with their team in the CWS office. Obviously, I played the role of the chief. 😉

 

After the initial bows, Luke, with the help of Wahab, introduced himself and summarized his reason for requesting the meeting.

 

Luke and Wahab then settled in for the full discussion and Q&A that occurs in these meetings. They did a great job and, after just a little feedback, were ready for the real meeting the next morning.

 

To celebrate the beginning of the teams' projects and Luke's birthday, we went out to eat!

 

Yum!!
As usual, Lauren made a new friend. 🙂

Gilanzegu

The day after opening day in Kampong, we opened another water treatment business in the neighboring village of Gilanzegu. Like Kampong, we learned about Galinzegu’s need for safe drinking water from unicef who thought that the CWS model would work well in this community – so far they were right!

Galinzegu is a rural village of about 310 people, located in the Central Gonja District of Northern Region Ghana, 40 minutes outside of Tamale. This water treatment business was sponsored by Gerry and Judy O’Connell. Gerry and Judy – thank you so much for your continued support! Here are some pictures from Galinzegu!

 

CWS assistant program manager, Shak, unloading the 200-L drums for the water treatment center in Gilanzegu

Household in Gilanzegu

 

 

Shak, distributing safe storage containers in Gilanzegu.

 

Before.
After!
The CWS ladies in Gilanzegu scooping water from the 200-L drums into the polytank.

 

Shak recording household numbers on opening day!
The water business was packed on opening day!
The busiest spot in the village!
Thank you Gerry and Judy!!

Scaling-Up

Community Water Solutions implemented our first water business in June 2008 in the village of Kasaligu in the Northern Region of Ghana.

7 months later, in January of 2009, we opened our second water business in Nyamaliga.

9 months later, in October 2009 we opened our third water business Jargiu.

After a successful holiday season of fundraising and with the help of our 2010 Summer Fellows, we opened four new water businesses during the first half of 2010, in Cheko, Gbong, Gidanturu, and Wambong.

We’ve spent the past two and half years slowly expanding, learning new things from each village, and slightly modifying our approach based on these lessons. We’ve learned a lot about fundraising, about building a non-profit, and about harnessing the enthusiasm and knowledge of willing volunteers.

We still have a lot to learn.

But, we now have the experience and resources to finally start scaling-up, and we’re planning to do it quickly! There are about 900,000 people in the Northern Region of Ghana (and 884 million around the world!) without clean drinking water, and we’re really excited to start making a significant dent in that number!

This November (as in right now!) CWS is implementing three new water businesses in the villages of Kampong, Galizengu, and Nyanguripe. By the end of December, we will be in two more.  By February 2011, with the help of the 2011 Winter Fellows we will be in a total of 19 villages in Northern Region Ghana. In just three months, we are going to more than double to the amount of people we serve and we have no plans of slowing down!

Of course, the scale-up of CWS would not have been possible without your support. I would like to send out a big

THANK YOU

to everyone who has supported CWS over the past two years. We would especially like to thank the Public Service Center and the Legatum Center at MIT for funding our first two pilot villages, as well as our awesome village sponsors: Volunteer Shredding (Jarigu), iContact (Gbong), an anonymous friend (Cheko), Colleen and Jeff Clopeck (Gidanturu), The Medfield FitGirls (Kampong), Gerry and Judy O’Connell (Gilanzegu), The Nolans (Nyanguripe), The Reids (one of the villages for December), and the CWS Facebook Causes Team (the second village in December). Finally, I would also like to thank Jay Roche whose generous donation helped us to purchase the CWS Truck (without which, this scale-up would not be possible.) THANK YOU ALL!

Here are some pictures from our work over the past week in Kampong and Galinzegu. I have taken A LOT more, but the internet has been slow and sporadic, so these will have to do for now! I’ll keep trying to put more up on this blog as soon as possible!

A cow, standing in and drinking water from the Kampong dugout - the only source of drinking water in this village.
Peter and Shak building the water treatment center in Kampong
Little boys in Galinzegu who helped us build the polyank stand
Amina and Samata, the two women in Gilanzegu who will be running at the CWS water business. They are awesome! (and LOVE getting their picture taken!)
Finishing up the polytank stand in Gilanzegu.
A garaou of dugout water in Gilanzegu. This is the water that people in the village are currently drinking.

Opening Day in Wambong!

Last Monday was a big day for the CWS Fellows; the culmination of all their work. The newly established treatment center (assembled by the Fellows) was opened for business and the villagers all came out with their new CWS storage containers (given to them by the Fellows) to fill them and start drinking clean water. The center was run by Abiba and Monera, the two women the Fellows had trained to run the center. Shak, Peter and the Fellows all made sure things ran smoothly and monitored the opening day sales.

The Fellows prepare the site for the busy day ahead
Sarah shows the dugout and treatment center water tests to several of the men that come to the site.
The Wambong Assemblyman followed Sarah's lead and showed the tests to some of the village elders.
The first blue bucket is spotted off in the distance!
... and the second blue bucket!
The Fellows all play it cool as they excitedly watch the buckets approach.
The line at the center began to form...
and it grew...
and grew...
and grew!
Amaia and child
James did a great job tracking every household that came for clean water.
Shak and the Fellows made a point of drinking the clean water in front of the villagers to show that it was indeed safe.
Ah... clean water 🙂
James diligently recording sales.
The opening became quite the event when these drummers showed up to entertain!
Monera managing the crowd
Abiba selling the clean water
Wambong woman with her newly filled storage container
The CWS Fellows, Shak, Peter, Abiba and Monera after the big opening

The Fellows survived the long day and left with smiles on their faces. Almost the entire village had come to fill their containers and so began their permanent access to clean water!

A Successful Week!

After an intense week, the Fellows have officially set up a new treatment center and prepared their village, Wambong, for its grand opening! The village, originally thought to have had a maximum of 35 households, turned out to have over 104! So they’ve definitely had their hands full.

The week started with testing the water from the Wambong dugout.

The beautiful and huge Wambong dugout.
The Fellows' initial water test showed that Wambong's dugout water, though beautiful, was indeed dirty.
James, thanks to all his recent training, was able to decipher the fact that Wambong's dugout water was indeed contaminated.
James caught in a candid photo
Sarah and her new friend, her water test from the Wambong Dam.

* Next, the Fellows, met with the chief and elders of Wambong (55 village leaders were present in the meeting!) and explained that the village’s drinking water was dirty. They proposed working with Wambong and explained CWS’s approach. This meeting is the most important part of the process. It’s the initial contact with the community and establishes the relationship between the village and CWS moving forward. Ben did an excellent job leading the hour long meeting. Unfortunately, out of respect, we never allow photographs during these meetings.

The village leaders were excited to work with CWS and the Fellows set to work on building the new treatment center.

The spot for the new Wambong treatment center was selected and ground was broken
The foundation for the center was laid.
The villagers all pitched in to help build their center.
It's unanimous. Wambong has the best treatment stand yet!
The stand was completed in just two days and the Fellows returned the third day with the rest of the center.
The CWS Summer Fellows all left their mark on their masterpiece and returned the next day with the rest of the center.
The Wambong Treatment Center!
Ben and James teaching the children of Wambong the importance of clean drinking water and using the CWS safe storage containers as well as letting them know about the new treatment center
The Fellows' little helpers during storage container distribution.
Amaia, Molly, and Sarah spent two days teaching the women in charge of the Wambong center the process for treating the dugout water as well as how to manage the money from water sales.
Sarah, Amaia, Molly, and Peter teaching the women how to treat the water.

With the treatment center built, the containers distributed, and the women trained, the Wambong treatment center was ready to open!