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Let there be light!

Posted on October 30, 2013October 30, 2013 by communitywatersolutions

After spending four long days building the physical structure, Ben and I were thrilled to get back to the bigger picture and move on to the next phase of the project. Now that the building was finished, it was time to meet the women chosen by the village elders to run the business and begin installing the system itself.

Mark, Ben, and Shak celebrating the completed solar panel installation.

First we wanted to get the actual solar panels positioned behind the center. We designed a metal frame and had a welder put together several metal poles using the perfect stick welding machine for the job! This was to elevate the panels off the ground and make sure they were secure. The panels are made of glass, so we wanted to make sure there was no risk of them falling and breaking while placing them out of reach of kids and animals. Attaching the panels felt like an SAT problem gone wrong. Oh, how I wish we had a complete solar panel guide
to help us through this process. No amount of hands-on-deck could take the place of a handy guide!

Nonetheless, this moment in time, I did secretly wish that we could put these panels on the roofs, as a solar installer would’ve been able to help make this process a lot easier to carry out. But we somehow found a way. We had holes drilled in the metal frame for the screws to fit in, but for some reason, it wasn’t lining up and we spent the better part of an hour figuring out how to attach it all. Shak suggested we work from the ground up and were able to overcome our temporary brain freeze to secure the panels and cement the metal frame into the ground. Looking back at it now, it probably would have been better to have erected the structure using metal building specifications, and considering the fact we’d actually have to make sure the screws and holes lined up to each other for easy assembly, all in all, we made it a little harder for ourselves.

The community was in awe of the high-tech equipment and we had a constant group of about fifteen people just standing around us watching the whole time. Once we finished they started to lick the wires coming from the panels to see if they were live and feeding electricity…luckily for them that’s not quite how it works or else they might have been in for quite a shock.

Once we installed the panels, we wanted to begin training the women. Upon our initial arrival in Wambong we had asked the village chief and his council of elders to select two women who were well respected within the community and would have the time and ability to ensure the success of the new solar center. Choosing to work with women in the community is a very intentional decision. Women’s empowerment is a cornerstone of Community Water Solutions’ and InnovaSun’s missions. Providing women with economic opportunities and elevating their role in society has proven to spur development all across the world. Many believe that women are the world’s most underutilized resource.

Training Salima (left) and Chang Chang (right) on the basics of the solar panel system.

Still, we were nervous requesting to work with women because working with electronics and appliances is usually considered “man’s work” and we weren’t sure the community would be receptive to women running the business or even believing in their ability to do so. Luckily, the village did not hesitate to choose two exceptional women, assigning, Salima and Chang Chang to run the center.

If anyone had doubts about the women’s ability to run the center, they were immediately put to rest. They quickly picked up the intricacies of positive and negative currents, they understood the circuit pathway from panel to socket, and began asking about expanding their business and charging people for television. We also coached the women on financial planning, stressing the importance of saving in the event of anything happening to any of the (very expensive) equipment. Finally, we had the women start working with a few of the materials until the battery connected to the socket. We plugged in a phone to show them that it had worked and when the picture of a charging battery popped up on the screen they both lit up and started clapping excitedly. It was so satisfying to see women with no formal education pick up something so quickly and show a strong desire to learn more.

Chang Chang connecting the wires to the power socket.

The women were soon given the opportunity to show off their newfound knowledge when we began to install and wire the rest of the system in front of a crowd of curious onlookers. Shak kept joking about Ghana’s newest electricians and more than one person in the village commented on how easy the women made it look. We took a hands-off approach only giving direction and explanation while Salima and Chang Chang physically connected everything – cutting cables, striping wires, and screwing everything into place. You could tell the women were enjoying the work and I must say it felt pretty darn good to prove some of the naysayers wrong.

Salima connecting the wiring from the Solar Panels.

After wiring the panels together and feeding them it into the solar center, the women connected the charge controller, batteries, and inverter, feeding it all toward a wall socket. Once everything was connected we hit the on switch and voila! Let there be light! Immediately all the people who had been watching us assemble everything started materializing their cell phones out of nowhere asking us to try and charge it…all in good time.

With that our new Solar Center is ready for business. Tomorrow we will be distributing lanterns to all the households in the community and throwing a party to commemorate opening day of the center! Check back soon to hear all about it.

-Mark

If you build it – they will come

Posted on October 28, 2013October 29, 2013 by communitywatersolutions

The past few days have been some of the longest that I have experienced. After a successful chief meeting we set out to build our structure – the home of the solar center. Having a solid structure is necessary because a lot of the solar equipment (batteries, inverter, sockets) need to stay dry and be in a well-ventilated area. So what was originally imagined as a small storage box to hold all of the valuable equipment has since transformed into a mini hut about 7 feet tall, five feet wide, and four feet deep. Now such a big structure may require metal reinforcement, which can be done by utilizing Stainless Steel Beams and rods. This can ensure that the solar home structure is strong enough to handle minor external pressures. In the end, it will be good to have such a big space for the solar equipment, which will allow us to keep all of the cell-phones and lanterns inside while they are charging, provide a shady place for the women to run the center and hang out, and create a central social point for the community. While I’m feeling positive about the end result and our decision to “go big or go home,” the process itself has been a case-study in patience and a friendly reminder of what it means to be working in Africa.

Saturday was our first day building the hut, and after picking up a lot of the essentials

The village mason and his team constructing the foundation.

like cinder blocks and cement, we laid the foundation. It still amazes me how resourceful and skilled the masons and carpenters here are. What they lack in formal education and resources, they more than make up for in ingenuity using sticks and string to make detailed measurements while working non-stop in the pounding African sun. We were able to choose the exact location for the center, and build a strong foundation, but from there we had to let the cement harden and head home until the next day.

Making progress on the solar center, but it's hot! — Making progress on the solar center, but it’s hot!

The following day, we hoped it would be a quick process of just adding layers of cinder bricks to the foundation until it was the appropriate height, but nothing is ever as easy at it seems. I’m still not sure why, but it took us about 5 hours in the sweltering heat to add the additional layers to the building, bringing it to it’s final height. I’m laughing thinking about it, although I wasn’t laughing yesterday; how could it possibly take an hour to lay each layer of brick (12 blocks)? But to be fair, my involvement in the manual labor was limited, so I’ll try not to judge too harshly. Also, it was a million degrees and I’m either burnt to a crisp or 10 shades darker.

This morning we were back at it, picking up additional supplies in town, including zinc metal sheets and wood for the roof and door. Once again, it was slow going as we proceeded to melt like figures at a wax museum. The roof turned out to be really nice though, and we took some time to explore the village and visit the CWS water center, which was a nice treat. As it stands now the structure is 90% complete. All that’s needed is a final coat of plaster and a cement floor. The flooring needs to be done right else; it may have structural defects within a few years. If that happens, one might need to hire local repair experts or services, similar to foundation repair in OFallon who can mend the damage. Anyways, apart from that, a door needs to be attached, which the village assured us would be completed by the time we got there tomorrow…only time will tell but I’m not too optimistic. The hut has become my Waterloo, sapping my energy, not too mention my wallet. People say a buying a boat is a money pit, they clearly haven’t tried to build a house. I’ll be thrilled when it’s finished and honestly it looks awesome, just part of the process and you can tell how appreciative the community is which helps keep a good attitude.

2013-10-28 13.20.29 — Mark, Shak, and Ben standing in front of the Solar Center.

As we’ve been preparing to open the center, Ben and I have spent a lot of time thinking about how access to electricity will hopefully spur entrepreneurship. We’ve talked about sewing businesses and refrigeration, hoping that individuals would take initiative to turn electricity into a new sustainable business. So far most people in the community have been asking about being able to watch TV – which yes they will have enough electricity to power. Ben and I have been laughing that they finally have access to electricity and all they want to do is watch the football match but today we started to realize the power behind that idea. In countries like the USA, it’s so easy to take amenities like electricity, a functioning TV, and a dish network for granted that people don’t even give a second thought about it! The difference is astonishing, and it should definitely act to make people more grateful about everything they have that others might not. There are individuals in the village who already own a TV, despite not having access to electricity. They are eager to plug it in and stream the games, charging individuals to watch, kind of like a movie theater. We apparently knew after talking to them that they needed something like DIRECTV to access all of their favorite sports channels and shows. Also, they would most likely want to have affordable Directv packages, similar to what is available in the United States, so they don’t have to rely on odd things to entertain themselves. Hence, things don’t always happen how you expect them, but they have a way of figuring themselves out, and in this case much sooner than we could have hoped for! We can’t wait to see how things continue to grow once the center is officially open for business.

Some people own a tv in a village with no electricity.

Tomorrow is a big day for us. We will finally be finishing the solar center and even more importantly, meeting and training the women who will be operating it. It will be up to them to install all of the equipment, under our supervision of course so that they have first hand knowledge of how it all works. We can’t wait to get started and meet them; the potential profits from the solar center are sure to transform their lives for the better. Check back soon to hear how it goes and meet the women!

-Mark

Welcome to Wambong!

Posted on October 25, 2013October 28, 2013 by communitywatersolutions

After having set up our Solar Panel System we needed to start looking for things to charge. With that in mind, Shak, Ben, and I took a trip to Melcom in downtown, Tamale. Melcom is a huge store with lots of furniture and appliances as well as some grocery items… imagine Target meets Ghana? We were able to find four different types of rechargeable “lamps” that we decided to test. We wanted to make sure the lanterns we ended up distributing to the community were bright, easy to charge, long lasting, and durable, and thought it would be a good idea to have options before narrowing down our selection. We came back to the CWS office and had all four lanterns and two cell phones charging at once from the electricity we’ve been collecting the past two days.

This morning it was go time, and Ben and I were up and out by 6:30 AM on our way to pick up Shak and make our way to Wambong. Wambong is approximately an hour and fifteen minutes away on a nicely paved road, so it’s actually not a bad trek at all. Ben was anxious to get back to “his” village and see some familiar faces from three years prior. The first day in the village is critical because they have no idea that we are coming or what we are planning, so it’s important that we have a plan to explain who we are and what we’d like to accomplish in order to get their buy-in and support. We also had to be prepared for the possibility of having our chief meeting. All major decisions in the community are made by the village chief – typically a very old man responsible for the well being of his community. In order to get the green light to start building our center we would need his approval and wanted to have our pitch ready to go.

Unfortunately, our arrival was temporarily overshadowed by a death that had just occurred that morning. The average life expectancy in Ghana is 60 for men and 62 for women; however death in the villages always seems to be a reality, with people attending funerals with some frequency. It was a sobering reminder of the challenges that people here face and the importance of development work.

After learning about the death, we offered our condolences and suggested coming back tomorrow, however the village elders were eager to meet with us and started gathering in the chief’s hut. We were going to have our chief meeting right then and there, and luckily Ben and I were prepared. The chief meeting is always fascinating. The chief is always seated or laying on a raise platform with his elders sitting on the floor around him. Meanwhile, Ben, Shack and I are sitting on a bench across from him. We pass around a Cola nut as is customary when meeting a village chief and start go into our pitch, with Shak translating every other few sentences. We tell them we are with Community Water Solutions and because they were so successful with their water program we wanted to

Ben scoping out potential spots for the Solar Center

introduce a new project to help bring Solar Electricity. Immediately the elders are on board and the chief started thanking us and God for all of our help. Their gratitude was obvious, and even when asked if they had any questions, their “question” was to keep saying thank you and to let us know that we were blessing from God. Not sure about all that, but glad that they are as excited as we are about getting started.

After a successful chief meeting we began to survey the village in preparation for construction. We needed to find a spot that was centrally located for convenience and security, a plot of land that would get plenty of sunlight at any time of day / year. After walking around a bit we settled on the perfect spot, the vacant lot is right in the heart of the village and right next to a few other huts but, ironically, is currently being used as kind of a dump with lots of garbage collecting there. The community assured us that the space would be cleared by tomorrow so that we could “break ground”. Just another example of having to look past what’s there to see what’s possible.

We were also able to talk to members of the community to get a sense of the demand for electricity in the village. We were told that each household has multiple cell phones and that people travel close to an hour two to three times a week to charge them, and while many households have a flashlight, they have to replace the battery every 4 to 5 days. Wheels turning, Ben and I began to realize just how significant an impact this solar center could have, not just for the women who would be running it and earning profit, but also for the entire village as they would be saving tremendous amounts of time and money having their energy needs met locally.

Energy in Ghana is a huge issue right now. The government recently announced a 36% increase in energy costs and people are already threatening to strike. It’s a pretty staggering increase considering approximately 40% of the country still doesn’t have access to electricity. We witnessed the government’s oversight first hand in Wambong. In the center of the village there is a massive pile of electrical poles that were distributed by the government to connect Wambong to the grid. The poles were delivered over 5 years ago and still haven’t been touched, forgotten by their owners, symbolizing a promise unfulfilled.

Tomorrow we begin construction so be sure to check back for pictures of our solar center!

-Mark

We have made Electricity! (Take that fire)

Posted on October 24, 2013October 24, 2013 by communitywatersolutions

After a quick couple of days in Accra picking up our supplies, Ben and I purchased our bus tickets for Tamale and braced ourselves for the 12+ hour journey to the Northern Region. For reference, Ghana is approximately the size of Oregon, and Accra to Tamale is like the coast to the center – so should maybe take 6 hours tops, but because of the quality of roads, the insane traffic laws, daredevil drivers, and unpredictable detours it’s a full day’s journey, but as they say, this is Africa.

Despite a delayed start, we were incredibly “lucky,” we made great time and arrived in Tamale at 8PM. We quickly settled into the CWS office, caught up with the team here, and checked to make sure our materials had arrived in tact (success!)

To say that today was a big day for us might be a bit of an understatement. Ben, myself, and our trusted Ghanaian translator Shak spent the day assembling and testing our solar system, from the panels all the way to the socket where you plug in your phone. We spent the morning stripping wires, playing with currents, connecting batteries and basically just playing with adult Legos and it was awesome…you might even say…sparks were flying? No really, sparks were actually flying. Of course, if you had a solar panel like this installed in your home in the US with the support of companies like Electric WorkForce (https://electricworkforceil.com/service-areas/burr-ridge/) the installation process would probably involve fewer sparks.

Ben connecting the power socket to our batteries.

We were able to use Ben’s technical genius, Shak’s innate understanding of electronics, and my unrivaled ability to follow orders to connect all of the equipment (with a little help from some very informative diagrams. In a solar system, you have panels, which capture sunlight and turn it into electricity in the form of DC or direct current power. The current then moves to a controller which makes sure the system doesn’t get overloaded before passing through to the batteries for charging. Deep cycle batteries, such as lithium solar batteries, are the best if you are in need of a battery that slowly runs, rather than a battery designed for quick speed or ignition. Finally, the batteries are attached to an inverter, which converts DC power to AC power (Alternating Current), which is what most home appliances use. Finally, you connect the inverter to an everyday wall socket, and voila! Electricity! You may need to check and see if this is covered under your home warranty, or see about getting a home warranty from companies such as First American so you know you are safe.

After letting the system sit out in the sun for several hours we decided to test our engineering know-how. With fingers crossed we plugged in a few phones…CHARGING! SUCCESS!

“We are like the Benjamin Franklin of Western Africa” – My not so humble take on our success.

We couldn’t believe it, we had somehow managed to not mess it up, and we were producing electricity…from sunlight! For me it was definitely a moment that I’ll never forget, knowing that we had used some available technology and some good ‘ol fashioned know-how / elbow grease to create electricity in a community that is plagued by blackouts and where people have to travel up to 3 hours to charge their cell phones! We ended up charging a completely dead Samsung Galaxy in just 2 hours, and we know that’s just the start of our charging capabilities.

Shak, Mark, and Ben, checking out the fully-assembled Solar Panel system.

Ben and I have been talking constantly about the ongoing possibilities that solar represents. For the purposes of this pilot we are focused mainly on lights and cell phone charging, but it’s so easy to imagine people having access to refrigeration (similar to this co2 refrigeration system), radio, sewing machines, rice cookers…anything that you can plug into a wall is now on the table for these communities.

We can’t wait to get to Wambong – the village where we will be implementing this new solar system to share the exciting news and get to work. We are planning to make our first visit to the village on Friday, so check back for more updates!

-Mark

Back to Tamale and it feels so good!

Posted on July 5, 2012July 5, 2012 by admin

After two weeks of training and saying farewell to some pretty awesome fellows, I have officially started as Ghana Country Director. It feels so good to be back with CWS! With the 6 newly implemented villages, CWS now has 38 villages in its monitoring rotation. Once the fellows leave, CWS continues to monitor its villages. This includes checking in with the wonderful ladies that run the water treatment centers, as well as doing household visits and taking water samples. Post-implementation, each new village is monitored once a week for the first 6 months and then less and less as the villages become self-sustainable.

It is the start of the rainy season here in the Northern Region of Ghana, which means that many of the villages (that have tin roofs) are transitioning into using rainwater collection techniques to harvest water with their safe storage containers. This is because some villages (like Gbung and Zanzugu Yipela) do not use their dugouts during the rainy season. While sales at the water treatment centers have been low in many of these communities that harvest rainwater, they will pick right back up when the dry season comes underway. As for now, the CWS staff in Ghana is just trying to stay dry with all the rain!

-Brianan

Shak cheesin’ with some kiddos in Wambong & Wahab keeping dry during a storm!

Happy 4th of July! — a boy in the village of Cheko shows off his American and clean water pride!

The children in Nyamaliga can’t get enough camera action!

Rainy season, means rice harvesting! A family in Tacpuli poses with their full bucket of clean water.

One Week In: Wrapping Up Orientation and Into New Villages

Posted on June 12, 2012 by communitywatersolutions

Over the past few days, the fellows have been finishing their orientation and are now ready to use their skills to bring clean water to six new villages. The teams practiced household visits on Saturday afternoon, then got to monitor real households in existing CWS villages on Sunday morning.

IMG_1588-1 — Team 4 (Matt, Heidi, Megan, and Cameron) acting out a scenario from a household visit with Nester

That afternoon, they practiced for their meeting with the chief and elders to gain permission to implement a CWS water treatment center in their village while continuing to run tests on water samples they collected from villages they had visited. Some of the groups had their chief meetings in their new villages yesterday, while the remaining groups will have their meetings today. All six teams report that their villages already seem enthusiastic about CWS building water treatment centers in their villages.

IMG_1345-1 — Teams 2 and 3 leaving the chief’s palace in Wambong (2010 Summer Fellows) on Friday after asking permission to take samples from the dugout

IMG_1367-1 — Evan taking a sample of the Wambong dugout

When Tyler, Jenn, Brigid, and Leah arrived in their new village, they saw feces and livestock drinking from one of the most turbid dugouts we’ve seen. Then, an old man came up to the dugout and began drinking water from it! If all goes well, this man and the other people in his village will be drinking clean water in just two weeks.

An old man drinking from the dugout in Kpachila. Photo Credit: Jenn Kao

The teams will begin building the polytank stands today and tomorrow. Some teams have interesting dilemas to work out with their villages before they begin. Team 5 (Sarit, Marwa, Brittni, and Khadija) have to decide where to build their treatment center in a village with two dugouts, a closer one that dries up in the dry season and a farther one that always has water.

The dugout in Team 6’s village (Mark, Kelsey, and Moriah), which they share with Team 1 (Zoe, Kelsey, Alex, and Olivia), floods during the rainy season, so they have to help their villages decide where to place their center and if it might be more beneficial to build two stands and move the center during the rainy season.

The village of Laligu built a second treatment center in the middle of town in March, making it more accessible

We look forward to hearing more from each of our teams as they come back from the field each day, eager to share their experiences with the other fellows. Look for their own takes on the blog in the coming days!

-Ben

IMG_1411-1 — The kids loved following the fellows around Wambong

This week in pictures

Posted on May 5, 2011May 12, 2011 by communitywatersolutions

On Monday and Tuesday I shadowed Shak and TJ as they monitored Yipela, Zanzugu Yipela, Zanzugu and Wambong. All four villages were doing great! It was so awesome to see the water treatment centers running smoothly!

First we stopped by Yipela and chatted with Saramatu

Saramatu bought some aquatabs since she was running low.

TJ did an awesome job taking notes on the CWS monitoring sheets.

Then we stopped by Wambong to see Chang-Chang. As you can see, the water treatment center was packed! It was so great to see all of those blue buckets on just a random Monday!

Chang-Chang says "Hi!" to all of the 2010 Summer Fellows

In Zanzugu, Azara had TJ and Shak move the water treatment center to the center of town for the rainy season because they have a couple of hand-dug wells that fill with water during the rains. This is one of the dug-wells. The water is still very turbid and fecally contaminated, so it still needs to be treated, but its easier for the village to fetch from the water treatment center when its close to the center of town. So far the new system is working well!

On Tuesday, we went back to Zanzugu Yipela and did a few household visits. Here are TJ and Shak taking a sample and speaking with a woman from the community about her water.

Woman on her way home from fetching water at the CWS water business in Zanzugu Yipela

On Wednesday, I headed down the Salaga Rd to check up on Chani, Jarigu and Cheko with Peter and Wahab. Here are Peter and Wahab talking with Alhassan's wife (who has recently started helping her husband run the water business), in Jargiu.

On Thursday, we spent the morning in Cheko training a new translator (more on that to come later!) and then spent the afternoon lugging 1,000 safe storage containers from Melcom to our office! 2011 Summer Fellows, we are now ready for you!

A Successful First Fellowship Program

Posted on July 10, 2010July 14, 2010 by communitywatersolutions

The CWS Fellows, now seasoned development veterans

The CWS Fellowship was a great success for all those involved. The Fellows learned a lot about water treatment, experienced an insight into what life in development is like, and became great friends, with each other, with their translators, Shak and Peter, and with the villagers in the process. Most importantly, they left behind a permanent business which will provide access to clean drinking water and improve the quality of life for a village of almost a thousand people. The CWS community grew by five incredible individuals this summer and we are grateful for the opportunity to have shared our experience with them. We hope Amaia, Ben, James, Molly and Sarah will return to visit us and Wambong one day. They will always be a part of CWS and as we support and monitor the Wambong center over the next year, we will continue to update the Fellows on the success of their project. We are excited and look forward to many more Fellowship Programs in the future and would like to thank our Fellows once more for helping us shape and improve the program for our next Fellows.

Thank you,
-The CWS Team

Opening Day in Wambong!

Posted on June 24, 2010June 26, 2010 by communitywatersolutions

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!

The Fellows all play it cool as they excitedly watch the buckets approach.

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.

The opening became quite the event when these drummers showed up to entertain!

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!

Posted on June 20, 2010June 22, 2010 by communitywatersolutions

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 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.

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 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.

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!