When we arrived to the village of Achechigon, Benin, we were surprised not to see a traditional hand pump in the village. Instead, we saw this imposing concrete structure with a window on its side, two spouts coming out at the top front and two taps at the bottom.
There were a handful of people lining up and getting ready to collect water from the building.
When we had arrived, they were just about to divert one of the taps to fill some drums for a herd of cattle to drink water.
When we provided the well, the community at Achechigon wanted more than just a hand pump, they wanted something that would ease off the burden of fetching water. They were inspired and envisioned a water tower for the village, as it would be the easiest way to get clean and fresh drinking water for everyone.
The community started to research and gather information on the best available technology for a water tower. Little by little, they started to purchase each component necessary to build the tower. They recruited some locals to construct it, including one of the villagers who was a local mason. Together, the community brought their best skills forward to build a tower.
Not only did the community work together to build it, they also pulled together the finances – 2 million CFAs (over $4,000 CAD) – in order to make the building project a reality. There were more than 1,000 people living in the village and the demand for clean water was massive. They understood the need for clean water and were happy to pay for it, knowing that the money would go toward maintaining the water system. This includes putting money toward diesel or parts to repair the generator.
The community sells water for 25 CFA ($0.05 CAD) per jerry can. Part of the monthly revenue goes toward employing an attendant who ensures that people pay for the water they receive. The current balance, after four months, is about 120,000 CFA ($263 CAD) in their village bank account.
Every Sunday, the committee meets to talk about management and operational issues regarding the well. The current ‘hot topic’ was the water packing issues.
A villager said, “This clean water simply transforms our lives. Every tribe in the area, including animals are just so happy that the water well is here.
Other people are suffering and depend on us! We must keep the water tower running. I don’t want to see other people suffering.”
There used to be just one well down the road with a foot pump. Men and women used to fight frequently because of the long wait time.
“We like to take this preciously,” said one of the villagers, after noticing the benefits of the well would be easier and faster access to water, which would promote peace in the household.
The difficulty of not finding clean water to drink had forced many to leave their homes and move to other places to settle. The culture in Achechigon is not nomadic, so one could imagine how difficult it must have been to move. With the water well in place and functioning in the village, families no longer had to make this choice. In fact, village life was being invigorated as more people were choosing to settle in Achechigon.
Every person our team talked to showed great appreciation and thankfulness for the well.
Today, their desire is to see this project replicated in different parts of the village and different parts of the district. This is a great example of how villagers view the water well as more than just a water point — it’s aspirational. Villagers are inspired and motivated to find the best solutions on their own. They all have a sense of duty to ensure that the well is working so others can also enjoy clean water.
The tower was designed with the users and management in mind, to improve the convenience of fetching water. Having the reliable water source is a great indicator that sustainable water service will continue in the village.
We are partnering with Global Affairs Canada to reduce the mortality rate of women and children, improve access to clean water, provide training in healthy practices and gender sensitivity, and increase absorption and consumption of nutritious foods by mothers, pregnant women, newborns and children under the age of five in Benin and Togo.
On Wednesday, March 30, 2016, both Global Affairs Canada and our team officially signed the contribution agreement for $3.6 million. Total value of this four-year project is $4.2 million, with Global Affairs Canada contributing 85% of the funds, and the remaining 15% will be funded through the public and our constituents.
The $4.2 million will go toward our Water for Life Initiative (WFLI) and will be used to continue and expand the well drilling and community development work that WFLI is doing in rural areas in Benin and Togo. As well, this partnership will help build and sustain the Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (MNCH) through the delivery of multiple, complementary health interventions.
“Women and girls around the world face particular challenges, including access to sexual and reproductive health services. With Canada’s support to the work done by GAiN Canada, we continue to address many of those challenges, by helping to improve the health of women and children in rural areas of Benin and Togo.”- Marie-Claude Bibeau, Minister of International Development and La Francophonie
With $600,000 to raise, we will look to our faithful donors as well as share this opportunity with new potential donors who align themselves with this project and who want to help contribute to strengthening health systems, reducing disease and improving nutrition.
“We are excited about the partnership with Global Affairs Canada. This project builds upon the success of the Water for Life Initiative to further maximize impact on mothers and children to regain the health they deserve,” shares Tim Lee, the Associate Director for GAiN’s Water for Life Initiative.
Food nourishes, satiates and brings people together. It did all that and more on April 9 and 10, when hobby chefs Tim Lee and Elaine Cheng hosted a dinner fundraiser in Vancouver, B.C., as part of DinnerPartyYVR and Social Bites, which had guests leaving with more than just full stomachs.
Lee, the Associate Director of GAiN’s Water for Life Initiative (WFLI), and Cheng, founder of Food Connections, partnered together to host “Water: A Journey of Restoration, Dignity & Life,” which spanned over two nights and sold out.
A story telling the harsh reality of the water crisis was weaved into each course, creating an experience for each guest and raising awareness about the ever-present issue. This visual and sensory way of raising awareness really emphasized the reality of a lack of clean water in some developing countries.
“People will remember this night, which is great because then it’s not just an event that they go to, but it’s an experience,” shares Lee.
Lee and Cheng deliberately put together a menu with an opposite flavour progression than usual menus. They started out with more pungent and strong flavours and ended with cleaner and simpler flavours near the end. “This is just to emulate going from thirstiness to thirst quenching,” explains Lee.
The menu was as follows:
1st course: The Water Crisis
Ricotta Gnocchi with crispy pangritata, chives and spiced hazelnut dust
Over 650 million people in the world do not have access to clean water and over 1 billion people do not have proper sanitation facilities. The first dish was served with these statistics and depicted the absence of water for many people in developing countries.
“[The first course] looks very dry, like a pile of dirt or rocks. The flavour is fairly robust; it’s meant to be a little dry, so people need to have a drink of water to emulate the thirstiness,” explains Lee. “The gnocchi, they look like little jerry cans; they look dirty.”
2nd course: The Water Tragedy
Seafood Trio, snapper, nori, bonito with kombu dashi broth
The second course highlighted the sad reality that many people in developing countries walk long distances and return home with dirty, contaminated water. The kombu broth was poured tableside so that guests could witness the kelp wreath rise to the top, representing polluted water.
“It’s a seafood trio and it’s presented with camomile flower underneath. It really talks about the tragedy and the flower and seafood represents the nuggets of beauty that is floating out in the midst of tragedy. [It symbolizes that] the people are resilient. They are vibrant and make it work, but they are still struggling at the same time.”
3rd course: The Water Opportunity
Pork Two ways, vegetable terrine, lavender, potato mousseline sauce
The third dish represented the multiple benefits of clean, accessible water. The two ways shows that water not only solves a multitude of health issues, it also makes an economic difference, as well as impacts gender and security issues in these rural villages.
“There’s a garden salad in the middle, made of asparagus and green beans and gelee in the middle. It’s cold and simulates a river. There’s some herbs on top to give the imagery of spring, where there’s opportunity budding out. Water comes with opportunities. The sauce is a potato mousseline sauce. [We used] potatoes because potatoes are from the ground and it represents that water is from the ground up.” The lavender in the mousseline represents beauty in the spring.
4th course: Sweet Water
Poached Pear, strawberry riesling gel, elderflower foam
“The whole flavour of the sorbet is supposed to be a refreshing, light, delicate way to finish the meal.”
Referring to water as sweet may seem weird but it is an acceptable adjective for those who are used to consuming muddy, contaminated water. Pure and clean water is not only refreshing, but sweet in so many ways.
The first night was opened to the public and brought out a variety of people. Some guests were looking to meet fellow foodies, some were mostly interested in the menu and what was being served, and others came out because they were passionate about the water issue. The second night’s attendees were friends of Lee and Cheng so the atmosphere was more relaxed.
Overall the dinner was a success and Lee is looking for future opportunities to host another fundraiser like this one.
“I tend to think food has a way of breaking down barriers and we can actually talk about life and issues in general. This kind of combines the two things that are quite powerful: water and food together.”
Note: To learn more about the inspiration behind why Cheng, founder of Food Connections, partnered with GAiN and did this dinner, click here.
Not many people can say that they have fed 5,000 people, for free, in the course of one-and-a-half hours. But Elaine Cheng can. The best (and worst) part? The meals were prepared using only food that would have otherwise ended up at the landfill.
This year, as a part of DinnerPartyYVR, Elaine and her partner chef, Tim Lee, will be making dinner for a much smaller crowd, but going for the same impact. The pair are cooking for Global Aid Network, where Tim is the associate director of the Water for Life Initiative. “Water projects really resonate with me,” says Elaine, who recalls visiting villages in Guatemala where water was scarce.
Read the full article.
Imagine if the only way you could access water was to dig holes in a swamp and wait all night for water to seep in? This was the reality of women in the village of Mwandila, Tanzania.
Waiting to fill a bucket of water often required sleeping by the hole all night long so that they would have something to bring home the next morning.
Sleeping in the swamp was very cold and uncomfortable, not to mention dangerous.
You can imagine the joy these women felt once a well was drilled in the village.
Not only did they have access to clean water instead of muddied water, they no longer had to endure harsh conditions in order to get it.
Today, the well is providing more than just disease-free water to the village, it is also creating opportunities to further wellness in the community. Mwandila now has plans to build a clinic with the excess funds from the sale of water.
WOULD YOU LIKE TO HELP OTHER WOMEN IN VILLAGES JUST LIKE MWANDILA?
THIS TUESDAY (MARCH 22) IS WORLD WATER DAY.
WILL YOU PARTICIPATE IN THIS DAY BY PARTNERING WITH US TO PROVIDE CLEAN WATER, SAFETY, NEW OPPORTUNITIES AND A BASIC HUMAN RIGHT FOR MORE WOMEN?
In November 2015, our GAiN Water for Life Initiative Team visited Ethiopia and brought back good news from a poor, remote village in the dry region of Southern Ethiopia – Ame Serba.
A newly-drilled deep-capped well had been finished and the team was there for the dedication.
Almost the whole village of goat and cattle herders turned out, dressed in their ceremonial dress to welcome the team and celebrate the new well. Old men came with tall carved sticks–the privilege of village elders, and the women came with festive trinkets in colorful dresses ornamented with gourds.
The village elders ceremoniously bestowed Borana turban headdresses on the GAiN staff to welcome them to the village.
The villagers were so overwhelmingly appreciative of the well!
It had changed their lives as a tribe and reduced the premature death of livestock due to water shortage. Women and young girls were unquestionably tasked with fetching water, and it was not uncommon to see girls 10 or 12 years old with large jerry cans strapped to their backs that they carried for long distances. Having the well close by was now saving women and girls precious hours every day. Today, they now use these hours to do more productive work on the farm and in their households, as well as go to school.
Through the partnership with the JESUS Film Church Planting Strategy team, the JESUS Film had also been shown in this village and a new church had been planted. After the dedication, the GAiN team met the new church congregation, which included the leader of the village and many other villagers.
It was so moving for the teams to see, with their own eyes, all those who had been impacted from this partnership and that God’s love had been demonstrated, both in word and deed.
THERE ARE MANY OTHER VILLAGES LIKE AME SERBA THAT NEED BOTH CLEAN WATER AND THE LIVING WATER.
WOULD YOU HELP PROVIDE CLEAN WATER TO VILLAGE?
The village of Namauni, located in Tanzania, was able to build a teachers house at the school with the coming of the deep-capped water well.
The school and teacher’s buildings were constructed with small clay bricks, but there were no water sources anywhere near the school, which made construction difficult and costly.
With the well nearby, the construction of the buildings was made much easier. In fact, the well brought down the going cost of bricks from 50 Tanzanian Schillings apiece to 30 Tanzanian Schillings apiece, all because water was readily accessible to make the bricks. The village also expects a housing boom in the near future, in large part because there is a nearby source of clean, disease-free drinking water. Having a nearby source of water will also increase the productivity of needed bricks.
Perhaps the greatest impact is in the lives of the children; particularly the girls. Instead of using valuable time to collect water, they can now spend that time at school getting an education as well as in other village activities.
WOULD YOU LIKE TO HELP OTHER VILLAGERS EXPERIENCE THE SAME TRANSFORMATION IN THEIR VILLAGE?
The village of Namauni, located in Tanzania, was able to build a teachers house at the school with the coming of the deep-capped water well.
The school and teacher’s buildings were constructed with small clay bricks, but there were no water sources anywhere near the school, which made construction difficult and costly.
With the well nearby, the construction of the buildings was made much easier. In fact, the well brought down the going cost of bricks from 50 Tanzanian Schillings apiece to 30 Tanzanian Schillings apiece, all because water was readily accessible to make the bricks. The village also expects a housing boom in the near future, in large part because there is a nearby source of clean, disease-free drinking water. Having a nearby source of water will also increase the productivity of needed bricks.
Perhaps the greatest impact is in the lives of the children; particularly the girls. Instead of using valuable time to collect water, they can now spend that time at school getting an education as well as in other village activities.
WOULD YOU LIKE TO HELP OTHER VILLAGERS EXPERIENCE THE SAME TRANSFORMATION IN THEIR VILLAGE?
The village of Rweje in Tanzania had the most number of buckets and jerry cans lined up at a water well that our Water for LIfe Initiative team had ever seen.
In fact, they lost count after 200!
It turns out that four villages were getting clean water from this one well.
Because there were so many people depending on this well, the borehole committee set certain days for each village to come to get water to try to reduce the pressure on the well.
Before this water well was provided, women had to spend the whole day walking as far as five kilometers and waiting in a long lineup for their turn to get one bucket of water.
The borehole committee was very organized. They issued receipts for each bucket of water sold so they could account for all the funds collected. Plus, they even had a sign posted with all the policies such as
- opening and closing times,
- everyone must get a receipt,
- villagers must take good care of the pump and wait their turn in line, and
- each village must come on their designated day to get water.
The committee has collected 6,000,000 Tsh ($3700 CA) in five months of operation, so it has become a big revenue generator for the village. The village decided to use some of the funds to complete the roof on a school that the local government started but did not finish.
With the extra money from the well, they also had plans to complete the classrooms, one at a time as they have the funds.
This one water well has transformed the lives of these villagers and is enabling better education and encouraging development.
WOULD YOU LIKE TO HELP PROVIDE A WATER WELL TO OTHER VILLAGES LIKE RWEJE?
Hawa Guyo of Melbena, Ethiopia is a mother who always carried two children (one in the front and one on her back) as she walked walk eight hours a day to fetch water.
Upon arrival…the water was extremely dirty. People and animals used it at the same time. The donkeys and other animals urinated in the same pond that Hawa was using for drinking water. She explained that both her and her children were getting sick from the water-borne diseases. To add to this, since Hawa did not have money to get treated, they suffered a lot for years.
Today, Hawa shared that their life is totally different for three significant reasons.
Firstly, after the water well was provided in her village, they only walk five minutes to get water.
Secondly, Hawa gets clean water from the well and they’re not suffering from water-borne diseases anymore.
Lastly, the responsibility of fetching water used to fall on the little girls and women and because of that the girls were not able to go to school. Now, since they no longer walk eight hours to fetch water, they have time to go to school. Hawa said that she is now able to send her children to school.
Hawa urged that the drilling support for the Borana people should continue so that many people are protected from sickness and the little girls can get an education.
“Thank you for what has been done for me and my community,” shares Hawa.