Project:

 

In 2008, IHSAN individual sponsorship and generous corporate support from Quantum Reservoir Impact provided $5000 for water, sanitation and livelihood projects in the Helebu Village of Sierra Leone (in the Pejeh Chiefdom) that benefited 1,700 people that live under the poverty line. This is a great example of holistic community support.  

 

Before the project, there was only one well that could only supply maybe 250 to 300 of the 1,700 people in the village, and only one toilet that ran off into water sources, polluting them.  The situation was dire with two out of every five children under the age of five dying as a result of an insufficient supply of clean water and sanitation.  A young child was dying every two weeks.  Livelihood promotion is impossible without good health; if people have access to clean water and sanitation, they are better equipped to fend off disease, which in turn renders them able to work, attend school and save money that would have been spent on medicines.

 

Project scope (which the community helped build):

 

• Cleanup and restoration of two wells

• Installation of a hand pump on one well and a diesel-powered pump on the second that pumps up to two holding tanks

• Installation of a 20,000L rainwater harvesting tank

• Selection of a livelihood project the village proposed: beekeeping

• Construction of a workshop, and the provision of tools for carpentry & sewing

• Construction of 10 eco-sanitation toilets

 

Using the carpentry and sewing workshop, the community can build their own beekeeping equipment.  175 bee hives are sufficient to provide for up to 40% of the income needs of the village. 

 

Results: In the year following the completion of the project, no young children died.

 

This project is part of a larger effort in the Pejeh Chiefdom to provide 17 villages (25,000 people total) with programs in water conservation through Rainwater Harvesting (RWH), hygiene education and professional development. 

 

For more pictures and information please check the report from Wherever the Need-