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From R&D Project to S.O.P: The Maintenance Service Program

Posted on September 6, 2021September 6, 2021 by admin

At Saha, we are always learning new things about the best way to open and run clean water businesses in small, rural communities. When we decide to make changes to our model, these ideas need to be vetted and understood thoroughly before they are rolled out to all our partner communities. How do we decide when a great idea merits a big change? The secret lies with our Research and Development (R&D) Team – one of our smallest but most important teams.

While we had conducted small, focused research projects over the years, R&D became an official, permanent fixture at Saha in 2018 when Fuseini Abdul-Mutala was hired. Mutala, along with Deputy Director Kathryn Padgett, commanded a 2-member team until this year when Wahab Lawal joined the team after most recently serving as a Customer Care Front-Line Supervisor. As R&D Supervisors, Mutala and Wahab work diligently towards their mission to research new and innovative projects for Saha. Currently, they spend about 70% of their time in the field, running the projects and collecting data and user feedback, and the other 30% in the office analyzing that data and feedback, making recommendations, and communicating results to their colleagues.

The R&D team has conducted many projects over the years from annual entrepreneur perception surveys to drinking habit observation studies. Several projects from recent years have dramatically shifted parts of Saha’s model. One such project is called the Maintenance Service Program.

The Maintenance Service Fee, or MSF, was a solution to solve a problem that had troubled many Saha businesses from the beginning: how to save the right amount of money to pay for spare parts and repairs at the business. Saha businesses use low-cost, locally available materials, but it was an ongoing challenge for our entrepreneurs to plan their savings cycle for broken parts, and to pay for them when the time came. Sometimes they would take new parts with a loan repayment plan, but collecting money regularly was difficult and could lead to stressful conversations for the field team and the entrepreneurs.

We knew we could make this process easier! Our goal is to implement community owned and operated businesses that run well and have technical problems fixed quickly so they can continue deliver clean water. The R&D team started with an idea: could we offer an annual insurance program that the women entrepreneurs paid into that would cover the cost of replacement parts? First came field research: would anyone even be interested in a 1-time lump sum fee for this service? Team R&D started with surveys of the women entrepreneurs. Ghana has national health insurance, so even in the most remote communities, people understood the concept of “insurancy” – paying in to a scheme that you may never use, but is there when you need it. The entrepreneurs both easily understood the concept and saw the value in such a program. The next step involved some creativity: we wanted a unique term, separate from health insurance and unique to the Saha business, and came up with “maintenance service.”

Back in the office, Team R&D studied years of data to understand which parts break, how often, and how much that would cost a business annually. A pricing structure was created based on village size so the fee was correlated with the amount of money it was possible to make from water sales, and the corresponding wear and tear on the business. The team designed certificates of enrollment that included the date enrolled, and the phone number to call when anything broke.

The team first rolled out the program in six pilot communities, and after seven months, fourteen more. To understand the impact of the program fully, they studied the claims cycle for technical part replacements in these pilot communities versus communities not enrolled in the program. It was remarkable – parts were fixed and replaced quickly without hassle or delay, so businesses had less downtime due to broken parts. The final test – would this program have seemed “worth it” to the entrepreneurs? Yes: when the year was up, all the entrepreneurs elected to renew. When surveyed, all entrepreneurs emphasized how much easier this program was than the old way: challenges were resolved promptly, repairs were fixed faster, and it was much easier financially to save money from the business.

Once the pilot concluded, the data was clear – this service could benefit all Saha communities. After some training, the Customer Care field teams in Tamale and Salaga introduced the concept to each community, collecting fees and issuing receipts and enrollment certificates. To date, 231 businesses are covered under the Maintenance Service Program.

Now the program is in the hands of the Customer Care teams, taking phone calls or visiting communities to discover broken parts, and fixing them as soon as possible. Our goal for “urgent” part replacements, that is, those that completely shut down a business, is 4 days. Recent reports have our teams replacing urgent parts within 4.3 days – not bad for a new program! We are working on closing efficiency gaps to make that even better over time.

As for Team R&D, they are on to new projects! While many of their studies don’t end with such a huge, organizational-wide effect, it is very gratifying for the team when they do. According to Wahab, “I thought this program would help improve Saha water treatment businesses to grow faster, and relieve the stress of broken parts for both the entrepreneurs and Saha staff. So I call it ‘Broken Parts Stress Free.’”

Mutala adds: “This idea is so far the best not just reducing the burden both customer care and the entrepreneurs go through but also to ensure that broken parts are repaired or fixed within the shortest possible time to keep the water business running.”

R&D Supervisor Mutala at Mahamuruyili. The entrepreneurs in this community decided to have a big day of sales to raise funds to enroll in the Maintenance Service Program

Meet Mr. Muda and His Family

Posted on March 3, 2021March 4, 2021 by admin

For a year now at Saha, we’ve been using remote calling to water business entrepreneurs and customers to enable Saha to keep in touch while avoid direct contact due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This technique gives Saha opportunity to listen to success stories, learn about problems that need immediate attention and continue education on COVID-19. During a routine phone call, field officer Amin Bangaham learned that Mr. Muda has been an active customer and strong advocate for the Saha water business in his community of Zowu.

Entrepreneurs in Zowu (most closely pronounced “Zoh”), in Central Gonja, opened their water business in 2018. Since day one, Mr. Muda was glad to have an option other than the dugout water for his family to drink. He lives with with wife and children as well as his elderly father. His wife, Mrs. Muda, refills the family’s safe storage containers whenever they are empty. Mr. Muda said that at first, the children and his wife were reluctant to drink the new water, but over time they’ve come to enjoy it even more than he does! He told Bangaham that they used to go to the community health center every month to get drugs due to someone in his household experiencing diarrhea, but since they’ve been drinking the clean water from the Saha business, it has been almost an entire year since he’s had to visit the hospital. He attributes this change to the drinking water, since he learned in the very first community meeting before the business opened that drinking the dugout water causes diarrhea.

Mr. Muda is the head of one of 62 households in his community, and Zowu is one of 246 Saha water businesses. Saha water businesses are impacting over 100,000 people just like Mr. Muda every day.

Saha builds better businesses!

Posted on September 28, 2018September 28, 2018 by admin

This summer, Sahayili continued to work hard to make sure our water businesses are working well. One way we have approached this was by pursuing empowerment of all of our team to have a solid baseline of financial training. This type of knowledge is something that we all need to have as we navigate through life, and regardless of whether you visit sites like https://kryptoszene.de/kryptowaehrungen-investieren/ to learn about cryptocurrency, or if you need to understand how saving money can help with your own personal financial situation, it all adds up. If we expect our entrepreneurs in the field to know how to set a price to the water they sell and the plan for the aquatabs they buy, we have to make sure we are sending monitors who are excellent with finances! To help with their knowledge, they can consider reading this article on financial terms so they are up to date with what we need.

This was one of our first experience in conducting a full staff training “in-house”. Overall, it was enjoyable and valuable and the team felt that it was definitely worth missing one day in the field to strengthen our own skills. Our training was a mixing pot of learning about core concepts, math, design, and general professional development, facilitated by our fearless math leaders Rhiana and Kathryn. But enough of the overview– let’s get into the details of the day!

The first part of our workshop dealt with this big question of “why do we set up water businesses” and we had a great conversation where staff was able to relay a deep understanding of how finances relate to sustainability. Staff shared out that business is important so that the women who run them can earn money and buy materials, cover the cost of the treatment process, and that by not just giving a Saha treatment center as a gift, we are actually empowering these women to have ownership of their water centers and motivating them to care for their own communities in a real and tangible way. Some may still need help from personal loans down the line with their finances, but hopefully this will kickstart positivity in their lives. We waded into the hard stuff and identified current challenges that our team is having, took a baseline quiz to see where we could all improve our understanding of Saha’s model, and ran example calculations of prices that we need to be able to do in the field.

For upcoming new Saha hires having a serious case of FOMO, have no fear! This session was so successful that we will continue to lay the same foundation with all new members of the Saha family.

After we thoroughly refreshed with some snacks and stretching, we did some math. We have to commend the staff members for sticking it out and doing something that was unfamiliar and rather long. They approached what could have been boring content with full excitement and were engaged the whole time. We did a “pair and share” method of doing some math calculations with a teammate because we all know there is strength in numbers and sometimes you just need to talk the problem out.

We ended the day with a really fun design challenge, addressing the question of how we improve our entrepreneur’s business skills when we meet with them to check in. We brainstormed and no ideas were off limits. We were encouraged to think about physical tools we could create, digital mockups, and acted out skits with our new ideas. We look forward to doing more exercises like these in the future!

– Becky W.
Labariga Field Rep ’17, Saha Summer US Volunteer

Operations Updates: New staff, new reporting, new ideas!

Posted on May 28, 2018 by admin

If you haven’t already noticed, there have been a lot of changes at Saha in recent months! I am so excited to update you on all of the improvements we’ve had. New staff, new reporting, new ideas!

The team has more than doubled since we last introduced new members. With useful tips from articles we have been reading (Some can be found at this link) we thought recruitment was the best option. We are so happy excited to see what they can do. Here is a brief introduction of all our recent additions. Last February, we said a fond fairwell to Eda and Morganne who have served as Operations Coordinators for over a year here in Ghana. A month later, we said warm hello to the new Operations Coordinator Rhiana Meade who will be working with me (Heidi)! Rhiana was actually a field rep during our previous Winter GLP 2018. She helped open a center with TJ at Nyantag, little did she know that a few months later she would be returning to work full time with us helping implement even more villages.

Here is a brief introduction of Rhiana. She graduated from Reed College in Portland Oregon with a degree in Chemistry and went on to get her Masters at Tufts University in Civil and Environmental Engineering. Previously, she worked for a Field Operations Supervisor for a Cambrian Innovation, a provider of wastewater treatment services. She has been to Ghana even before her field rep days. Her parents lived and worked in Accra for a few years, during which she visited them, found herself a Ghanaian Auntie, and was able to tour around the country. She has works with passion and compassion and can make an amazing Blondie! It been great having her as my counterpart. She was was able to hold down the fort when I went on vacation 2 weeks into her arrival and orientation. We plunged her into the Saha life, and she has done well!

Next to introduce, is someone who took on a completely new role: Director of Operations. We welcomed Theo the same month Rhiana joined on. He was born and raised in Accra and went to Ashesi University to study Business Administration. Prior to Saha Theo worked with Delta and a Start-up called Laundry King – An on demand laundry service. Maybe we can get one of those here in Tamale? Theo is on the search for the best Wache in town, so any recommendations please send them his way. He will be taking over most of the administrative load from Rhiana and myself, so we can focus on optimizing the day to day management of our staff. It’s been helpful having an in-country representative to focus on community relationships and building up the organization for future growth. Since the role is still being formed, he’s been doing an amazing job rolling with whatever we need him to to. Currently, he is going out 3 days a week to get a true feel of how the business run and what Saha does. Since coming, he has been able to witness an implementation through it’s entirety, get incredibly lost scouting, and have difficult conversations with villages facing problems. Way to go Theo for taking on this role with bravery and openness!

Speaking of growth, did you notice, we hired on 5 new full time staff members? All the new staff were our Translators in our Winter 2018 GLP. Much like Rhiana, little did they know that they would become full time staff with us in a few months for the GLP. Now I can’t image the team without them. You can read more on their bios but here is a which overview of our newest members:

Abubakari Asita (aka Sita), she grew up in Tamale and started working with Saha back in 2014 implementing Balamposo. If she sounds familiar to you, you may have recognized her from Women’s week posts. She loves being an inspiration to little girls in the villages she visits.

Alhassan Seidu was trained under Eric who would often take him out in the field monitoring and implementing. Now he can do that on his own as a full time staff. Seidu always shoos away the goats that wander into the Saha Office. Outside of Monitoring, Seidu is a skilled electrician and helps us with any electrical needs we encounter at the office.

Ziblila Mohammed Taufik has been part of 3 Global Leadership Programs. His first implementation was Baiyili. Prior to Saha Taufik used to teach ICT, but now he enjoys seeing the clear water being scooped into the PT at the water centers.

Amenyeku Dzorsah started as a translator for GLP. His first implementation was Changbuni. Prior to monitoring, Dzorsah was a taxi driver in tamale. Now he gets work with the women entrepreneurs, talk to people during household visits about clean water, and drive a moto everyday instead of a taxi. I haven’t asked him which he prefers yet!

Sulemana Tijani has known and worked with Saha in its very early stages with Shak and Kate. His first GLP village was Yapei-Yipela. Prior to Saha he worked at Melcom (the Tamale equivalent of Walmart) and drove a taxi. Now he can bring clean water to his country and work with other likeminded individuals.

A larger team has allowed us to expand and focus! So starting in January, we divided up into 3 Distinct teams: Scouting, Monitoring, and Implementation. We divided up the team based on their interests, but there is the possibility of movement across teams if desired. For now, everyone is doing an amazing job in each of their teams. Because we have focussed teams, we can have more direct goals to achieve. For the scouting team, our goal is map our all the villages within a 3 hr driving radius around Tamale, start plotting Salaga villages, and determine “Yes” villages. Our Monitoring team’s goal is to make sure our current villages are getting the support that is needed and to find ways to improve our implementations and trainings. Constant improvement is our motto! Our Implementation Team allows us to implement villages outside of our Global Leadership Program, which means we can reach more villages each year. It also helps us use what we learn from the monitoring team, to refine and perfect our implementations and trainings. I have been so impressed with how the team has handled the transition.

Most of the team (minus Rhiana who took the photo and Peter who was in Salaga at the time)

You’ll see below, I’ve added a *Bonus* Team. These are our part time staff that also have been doing great work for us in the past few months. Blessing, a former translator for the GLP, is now helping us build relationships with the Districts, so we can connect our villages needs to gov’t bodies. Mutala is our newest addition to the team, he and Blessing have been doing research for Kathryn to help improve our knowledge of water consumption. Kathryn has big plans for the research team, look out for her update!

Scouting: Amin, Peter

Monitoring: Simply, Nestor, Sita, Seidu, Taufik, TJ

Implementation: Wahab, Eric, Shak

Blessing our District Liason and Researcher

Bonus (part time) Teams:

District Liason: Blessing

Researcher: Mutala

The increase in staff was only made manageable by the addition of this amazing data organizing tool we started using called mWater. With mWater we are able to take surveys, plot points, and collect data all through an application on our phones. Once the phone is connected to the internet, this information is synced and can be stored and analysed online. We piloted it in November and fully launched it in December, however since we are still in the learning phase, there have been several iterations and updates to how we collect data. This has been a game changing addition to the day to day work. We can say goodbye to the endless amounts of paper used and manually inputting information into excel. I am excited to see what we can do with mWater and will update you more on this in a separate post!

Welp! If you felt like that was a lot to take it, it was!!! Thanks for reading through this “brief” update. If you want to hear about anything more in detail, leave us a comment!

Go team go!

Heidi

Updates From Our Newest Communities

Posted on April 12, 2017April 12, 2017 by admin

Hello hello! Morganne and Eda here, sending a report straight from Tamale!

Monitoring has been busy since the end of our Winter Global Leadership Program (shout out to our #sahappytobehere crew!). As you might know, we opened our 100^th water business in January, which means 100 villages to get out to and check up on! Here’s the latest from the first 2 months in our newest communities:

Village	Full-time Monitor	How’s it going?	Center Status	Household Visits	Lab Samples
Defisa	Amin, he visited on March 31st	Jahama and Lukaya said sales are going well, however the dugout is very turbid so they have to use more alum to make sure the water is clean!	Polytank is ½ full and the 3 “Blue” Drums were empty	5 out of 6 households had water in their safe storage containers	The Polytank sample came out clear!
Juni	Wahab, he visited on March 27th	The dugout has dried because the rainy season hasn’t started yet. Wahab spoke to Jamila who said sales were going well and the women are ready to treat water as soon as the rains come!	PT Empty and 3 “Blue” Drums empty	No household visits because the dugout is dry	No lab samples were taken this visit. The polytank was sampled earlier this month and came out clean!
Kpumi	Peter, but Shak visited on March 29^th while Peter monitored our Salaga communities	The water is getting very turbid but sales are still going well!	Polytank is more than half full and the 3 “Blue” Drums were empty	4 out of 6 households had water in their safe storage containers	No samples were taken this visit. The polytank was sampled earlier this month and came out clean!
Labariga	Peter, but Shak visited on March 29^th while Peter monitored our Salaga communities	Fusheina said sales are going well and they treated water yesterday afternoon!	Polytank is more than half full and the 3 “Blue” Drums are empty	4 out of 6 households had water in their safe storage containers	No samples were taken this visit. The polytank was sampled earlier this month and came out clean!
Parishenaaya	Wahab, he visited on March 30^th	Salamatu said some farming families have returned to Parishenaaya so sales have picked up a bit!	Polytank is more than half full, 3 “Blue” Drums are empty	5 out of 6 households had water in their safe storage containers	No samples were taken this visit. The polytank was sampled earlier this month and came out clean!
Tuya	Wahab, he visited on March 30^th	Mohammed, who helps with the center when the women travel, said sales are going well and that the recent rains increased the water level in the stream!	Polytank is more than half full, and 3 “Blue” Drums are full but don’t have alum yet	6 out of 6 households had water in their safe storage containers, YAHOO!	No samples were taken this visit. The polytank was sampled earlier this month and came out clean!
Zuro	Peter, but Shak visited on March 29^th while Peter monitored our Salaga communities	Abiba said everything is going well!	Polytank is ¼ full, and 3 “Blue” Drums are empty	3 out of 6 households had water in their safe storage containers	The polytank sample came out clean!

And our newest solar businesses:

Village	Full-time Monitor	How’s it going?	Center Status	Household Visits
Chihigu	Peter, but Eric visited on March 28^th while Peter monitored our Salaga communities	Hawabu said everything is going well!	There were 8 phones and 6 batteries charging at the center	All 6 households had working and fully charged lanterns, yay!
Jagberin	Wahab, he visited on March 27^th	Ramatu said sales are going well but some farming families have left because their dugout has become very turbid. As soon as the water level increases these families will be back and increase solar sales!	There were 15 phones and 8 batteries charging at the center	All 6 households had working and fully charged lanterns, wahoo!

Eric takes a selfie while monitoring in Chihigu

Special thanks to our Winter 2017 Field Reps who got these 9 communities off to a great start! Ti paya pahm!

Community Map

Posted on March 21, 2017 by admin

Despa Saha supporters! We’re really excited to share our latest and greatest village map with all of you! Our old map needed some technology updates before we could get it up here on our blog. We are still working on integrating more up to date information with each community’s tab, such as the names of each entrepreneur, prices for water and solar charging, and other information we get from the most recent visit. We’re also hoping to merge our lab data with the map so you can all see the latest waterquality in polytanks and safe storage containers across all 100 of Saha’s villages. Stay tuned for more updates as we create our interactive village map!

Meet Morganne!

Posted on January 4, 2017 by admin

This December, Morganne Hodsdon joined the Saha team as our newest expansion coordinator. Morganne will be working with Eda and the rest of the team in Ghana to help Saha prepare to expand in northern Ghana. She will specifically be focused on helping Saha better understand how frequently our beneficiaries drink clean water in their homes and how we can increase that frequency. Without further ado, meet Morganne:

After my first trip to Ghana as a field rep in June of 2015, I knew I wanted to come back at some point in my life, but I couldn’t have anticipated it happening so soon! Getting to revisit my solar village of Namdu 1 and joining the Saha team is an incredible opportunity, and I couldn’t be more excited and grateful for what lies ahead!

Similar to Eda, I graduated from Colby College in May so we will definitely be reminiscing on our chilly winters in Maine while living in the Saha house. With a bachelors degree in Economics and French I knew I wanted to pursue a career in international development, but wasn’t sure of exactly what realm of the sector I wanted to be in. While searching for summer jobs I found the Global Leadership Program, and my three weeks in Ghana ignited my passion to combat the global water crisis. Witnessing the devastating effects of waterbourne illness as well as Saha’s incredibly simple and sustainable solution to providing clean water access directed my job search. After graduation I spent time in New York as an intern at charity: water, where I was exposed to the fundraising side of non-profits. I loved getting office experience, especially with a water focused non-profit, but I am definitely ready to get back into the field with the Saha team!

As an Expansion Coordinator I will be assisting with the detailed monitoring efforts to ensure we’re doing everything we can to support the success of our businesses. I will also be running case studies with various villages to help us understand how households are using their village’s water, and how Saha can encourage clean water usage. Saha wants to ensure that the women entrepreneurs are profiting from their businesses and that no contaminated water is being mixed into anyone’s diet. The next several months will be a huge learning moment for Saha, and I can’t wait to see what methods prove successful to instilling safe and healthy water practices to all of Saha’s 46,510 (and growing) beneficaries!

Monitoring data update

Posted on November 16, 2016 by admin

Under construction!

You may have noticed we’re a bit behind on our Monitoring updates these days, but with good reason! Saha is revamping our data collection and distribution methods, which will make it easier for you to understand how all 93 of our communities are doing.

Saha’s growth in recent years is extremely exciting for many reasons, but during the process we outgrew our ability to keep up the old style of village-by-village monitoring updates. The goal in the coming months is to be more transparent with how our daily visits go, and have more comprehensive summaries each month for both water and solar centers.

But of course change takes time, so we hope you’ll understand the delays! Check back soon for more.

– Eda, Shak, Amin, Wahab, Eric, and Peter

July Monitoring Report

Posted on October 24, 2016October 24, 2016 by admin

Villages Visited:

Week 1: Kagbal, Kurugu Vogyili, Laligu, Yepalsi, Balomposo, Jukuku, Kpengiyili, Changyili, Jangbarigiyili, Sabonjida, Gidanturu, Chanaayili, Tunga, Kideng, Kabache, Jarayili, Warvi, Sagbarigu, Chandanyili, Tijo, Tindan, Naha, Galinkpegu, Gondaa, Chihigu, Bamvim, Kpanshegu, Changbuni, Yepala, Kpalguni II, Futa, Cheko, Jarigu, Vogyili, Djelo, Kanjeyili, Bagyili, Dawunyili.

Week 2: Jukuku, Kpengiyili, Yakaru, Jangbarigiyili, Balomposo, Changyili, Zanzugu Yepala, Zanzugu, Galinzegu, Yapalsi, Kpalyn, Laligu, Wovugumani, Gburma, Janakpeng, Wovugu, Manguli II, Changbuni, Futa, Chani, Tantuyani, Cheko, Takpli, Yepala, Kpanshegu, Kpalguni II, Sankunpe, Mahamuruyili, Tohinaayili, Nekpegu, Kalinka, Kpanayili, Gurumachayili, Kudula.

Week 3: Chani, Changbuni, Chandanyili, Changyili, Kpalguni, Kpanshegu, Sagbarigu, Tantuani, Wambong, Yakura, Balamposo, Gundaa, Jangbarayili, Kpaliguni II, Nymaliga, Warivi, Yepela, Zanzugu, Galinkpegu, Gburma, Janakpeng, Manguli II, Naha, Wovugu, Wovugumani, Banvim, Komlanyili, Kpenchila, Tijo, Tindan
Week 4: Kushini, Jarayili, Gidanturu, Kideng, Tunga, Indigenouse Kabache, Kagburashe, Libi, Gbung, Kpalyn, Lalgu, Yepalsi, Changyili, Yakura, Jabayili, Jangbarigiyili, Balomposo, Galinzegu, Zanzugu, Zanzugu Yepala, Kuruguvohuyayili, Sagbarigu, Kpalguni I, Chandanyili, Namdu I, Namdu II, Naha, Galinkpegu, Gondaa, Warvi, Chihigu, Sakpalua, Kpenchila, Bamvim, Wovugu, Gburma, Wovugumani, Manguli II, Cheko, Jarigu, Futa, Kpalguni II, Tantuyani, Takpli, Yepala, Kpanshegu, Changbuni, Kulaa, Moya, Vogyili, Gurumanchayili, Komonaayili, Kalinka, Nekpegu, Kuldanali, Tindan.
Week 5: Sagbarigu, Kulaa, Moya, Kideng, Tunga, Futa, Jarigu, Yepela, Tindan, Jukuku, Original Kabache, Kadula, Kpingiyili, Gidanturu, Yapalsi, Namdu, Namdu II, Indigenous Kabache/Kasawuripe, Tantuani, Gundaa, Kpaliguni II, Tacpuli, Kpenchila, Sakpalua, Vogyili, Yakura, Balamposo, Jangbarayili, Chihigu, Gbung, Kagbarashe, Libi, Buhijaa, Kanjiyili, Chandanyili, Kpalguni, Banvim, Komlanyili, Galinzegu, Kalinka, Nekpegu, Zanzugu, Changbuni, Kpanshegu, Changyili, Gurumanchayili, Kombonaayili, Galinkpegu, Naha, Kurugu Vohyili, Cheshegu, Kagbal, Kpanayili

Success Stories:

All of the newly implemented villages from the GLP Summer 2016 are running very well!

The following villages had 6/6 during at least 1 visit: Sagbarigu, Naha, Galinkpegu, Warvi, Moya, Tindan II.

Kalinka, Moya, Komonaayili, Gburma, Kushini and Kagburashe are planning ahead to move their centers as their dugouts are getting flooded.

There are 18 new households (16 Fulani) in Tunga and Peter gave them safe storage containers.

The entrepreneurs of Kushini plan to open a bank account soon!

Challenges:

As it’s the rainy season, most of the villages have low sales with their water business because people are harvesting rainwater.

Villages that have problems with their water businesses are:
Chandanyili, Tijo, and Laligu have dry dugouts, and their centers are closed. Chandanyili plans to move the center to a new dugout. Djelo and Sagbarigu polytank taps were leaking and they couldn’t treat water, but that is fixed now. Kalinka and Chandanyili polytank taps broke and have been fixed.During lab testing week some households came out with total coliform and E. coli. Staff followed up with households that came out with positive results and give advice.

Villages with problems with their solar businesses are:
Kurugu Voyili, Djelo, and Vogyili complain of lamp batteries problems. They don’t last long after charge and sometimes people don’t want to pay for batteries that are not well charged. The door to Djelo solar center is broken by a storm and needs to be fixed. Two families in Chani have purchased batteries for their lamps, and some other people in that village want to buy batteries too. Nekpegu and Chani have complaints about their lamps and lamp batteries. Yapalsi has a genset problem but they have electricity now. It was mentioned that Kpanshegu had some households complaining of not getting lamps during implementation and Amin is to find out from the assembly man why their names were omitted from the household list. Bamvim solar center was leaking and has been fixed now. With Solar, Kurugu Vohoyili batteries are dead and Nekpegu have no battery chargers as all are broken. There is a plan to have a meeting in Nekpegu with the community to discuss price for charging phones as women entrepreneurs complain.

Monitoring Updates From Eda

Posted on July 19, 2016 by admin

Despa!! I’m currently sitting in the Saha office on a rainy Monday morning. Most days we’d be out monitoring right now, but the downpour is keeping us inside. We gave it our best shot, heading out at 6:30am only to make it to the other side of Tamale before we were soaked through. It doesn’t help much to put a rain jacket on after the rains begin, and motos don’t offer any rain protection, so back to the office Wahab and I drove! Tomorrow we will try again!

The few weeks since the Global Leadership Program ended have been an adventure. Thus far, I’ve gone monitoring with Eric, Shak, and am now starting to monitor with Wahab. Katie and I are spending a week with each full time staff to really understand how things run around here.

Eric monitors Vogyili, the community I implemented a water business in as a field rep. It was fun to monitor and see how well they were doing, especially considering they now have a solar business too. Eric also monitors five of the nine new water businesses from this summer’s GLP. All five (Kanjeyili, Baayili, Dawunyili, Mahamuyili, and Kpingiyili) are doing well!

A few surprises occurred when Shak and I visited Yakura. The first of which was the small lake that greeted us on the road into the village. We weren’t sure we could make it through on the moto, but a man passing by on a bicycle assured us it wasn’t that deep. However, he was taking a back route that wasn’t moto friendly to avoid the puddle, so we were on our own. I decided to let Shak ride alone, and I would walk though the puddle rather than risk a swim were the moto to tip. Thankfully, the man was right and we made it through without (many) problems, but I am glad I walked!

In Yakura I also saw Mary, one of the women entrepreneurs from my time in Vogyili. We were walking into our first household to monitor and there she was!

I knew that she had moved to another community, but I was so surprised and excited to see her! She’s now helping run the water and solar businesses in Yakura. Mary was equally as surprised to see me, and asked how Victoria, Jacob, and Hailey were (my 2013 GLP teammates). It was a touching reminder of the lasting impact field reps and Saha truly have on each community and its entrepreneurs.

And now, an update on living in Tamale and a shameless plug for our food blog! Katie and I have started an Instagram account – tamaleeats – to document our adventures cooking and eating here in Tamale (even though we have zero experience with food photography). It’s a whole new world learning what goods we can actually cook from the market, and trying to operate our oven. It’s a great day if it only takes one match to light the stove!

Nevertheless, I think we’ve done a splendid job so far: we haven’t eaten plain rice for any meal and we discovered donuts in the market can be a good (albeit not nutritious) lunch substitute when it’s too hot to turn on the stove. Head over to tamaleeats to see homemade falafel, mujadara, chili, and more!