Too interesting to wait

Dearest friends,

So there I was, on the back of a motorcycle with a nice man who was the Assemblyman for the village of Abotoase, gliding through the town on our way to a meeting. It had been a very busy morning. Mr. Kumaa, the leader of GHAFUP and myself had traveled on Tuesday to Abotoase a town about 4 hours from Accra on the Northern shore of the Volta Lake. The Klagbokorpe group of GHAFUP had submitted a proposal to the office for a 10-seater KVIP toilet facility and it was our job to assess the situation on the ground and my job to take the information and make a proposal to submit to our partners for funding. The previous weeks I had spent developing questions for meetings with the GHAFUP group, the WATSAN (water & sanitation committee) and focus group discussions one of just men and one of just women.

The night before we arrived at about 5 and were surprised to immediately be greeted by the very important and hospital Assemblyman for the district. Unexpectedly, he thought our arrival was to assess a water project that was beginning in Abotoase in April so he had scheduled meetings for us with Abotoase GHAFUP and the WATSAN under that premise. After a short discussion, we resolved the problem and agreed to meet with both groups about both issues. In the afternoon we toured around Abotoase, saw sets of clogged KVIPs, overwhelmed boreholes. The town of Abotoase has 5 boreholes for about 5,000 people, and so they are very slow of overwhelmed by long lines of anxious women and children waiting to go to school. Frequently fights break out of water and 80 buckets surround the slow moving water waiting to be filled.

The day began as Mr. Kumaa and prepped for the meeting with Abotoase GHAFUP that we hadn't originally prepared for. We arrived at the site and after about half an hour, about 20 people were sitting on benches waiting for the people from the office to "talk about the water project". I was the main representative of the office, a big responsibility and Mr. Kumaa was the representative of the federation GHAFUP. I talked about the specific activities of the project and asked them how they saw the project as well as what benefits it would bring to the community and the group. The response was overwhelming. The project itself was a mechanized borehole with pipes to 15 distribution points, vastly expanding the speed and capacity of the water supply in the town. People sited benefits like more trust and awareness of the GHAFUP group, finally something is happening after complaining at the district assembly for water for several years, better health for the community. I walked out of the meeting very happy about the potential thisproject was bringing to he community. Plus it was an idea proposed by the people themselves who were affected and will be maintained by the people themselves through user fees. It's a real grassroots solution.

Then came the meeting with the WATSAN committee. It was a very productive meeting as I began to see that there were many actors doing different things in the community (i.e. District Assembly, NGOs, WATSAN) all of which had different projects, but when some fell apart no one was coming to fix them. So they fully supported our proposal for a KVIP in Klagbokorpe and I was fortunate to meet a very nice man who has worked as a sanitation officer for Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA) for the past 13 years who was greatly helpful in me understanding toilets and sanitation. After the meeting with met with the Paramount Chief of Tapa district, meaning the most important chief of nearly 100,000 people to inform him of the project. At that point I was amazed at what I was doing and what responsibility I held as a representative of the office.

I hopped off the motorcycle and sat down in some chairs behind the table under a large tree. The Klagbokorpe group was meeting today, amazed that a whiteman had come all the way from the office to talk with them about their little toilet project. After about half an hour there were 40 people sitting under that tree waiting anxiously for Mr. Kumaa and I to begin. The Assemblymen introduced us and our purpose, Mr. Kumaa stood up and explained the values of the Federation, and then it was my turn to lead. I stood up in front of 40 people I didn't know and spoke the little Twi I could to introduce myself: "Yefre me Fo Kwasi. Mefi Amerika aburokyire na meye mi internship waw PD..." (My name is Grandfather Kwasi, I am from America overseas and I'm in an internship with PD). At that point it was onto the discussion, I explained the purpose of my being there the project itself and asked them to explain to me how this idea came about and they thought the benefits would be. We then broke off into smaller discussion groups and I conducted a discussion first of men with 4 GHAFUP members and 4 community members and then a discussion of 4 GHAFUP women and 4 community women. What I learned was extremely interesting.

In Klagbokorpe, a town of nearly 3,000, there isn't a single public toilet facility. As a result, people use the bush or Lake Volta to make toilet. The problem is that there are big problems with both. While going toilet in the bush several complained about getting bit by snakes, one person's relative died because they couldn't get tothe hospital in time. Another danger is that small children may encounter a dangerous animal and not know what to do so either run or will get attacked by it. For women, many are shy and it isn't proper for a man to see you when you've declothed yourself to shit. In the bush, women will frequently run into men or men will be waiting there to see them naked. The other option for shitting (sorry pardon my language, in Ghana shitting is a very acceptable term not derogatory in any fashion) is using Lake Volta. The main problems with this are that the water is also used for washing, bathing, and cooking. Community members complained of many problems like Cholera, blood in stool (Bilharzia), diahrea, and other things as a result of drinking or using the polluted water. In addition, the crap sinks to the bottom of the lake but is flushed up again during the rainy season when it washes back into the town.

After these meetings, we saw that it was necessary to set up two KVIPs 10-seater each because of the number of people in the village. The group them took us to the two sites, which were approved by the DANIDA sanitation officer to be appropriate for the facility. The important factors were that it was more than 150 yards from the water and that the facility be water tight. This means that the tanks into which the excrement falls must be cement on all sides so that it can be pumped out by a truck when it is full. The small user fees that will be charged by the GHAFUP group who will be maintaining the facility will pay for periodic cleaning and waste removal as well as be contributed back to a revolving fund for other projects. People's Dialogue projects act like somewhere between a loan and a grant, there isn't full cost recovery, but much of the initial cost is paid back into a fund which will be used for other projects. In addition, the community members also take a portion of the funds as their profit as they are running the business. It's a very effective and community-based and led strategy.

The rest of the day we spent touring the area. I encountered one image that I think will always stick with me. We came to the main KVIP for Abotoase, and it was completely full. For almost a year there hasn't been money to empty the tanks and replace the stolen pipes. I went totake pictures to notify the office so maybe we could issue a loan to repair the facility. Every stall door I opened, I was met by a completely full toilet, filled to the brim with crap and covered in a layer of moving white maggots. After seeing the decay of the main facility for many of our members, Mr.Kumaa wisely decided (out of the passion he has for other GHAFUP members) that we should figure out a way to repair it. We talked with the assemblyman for quite some time about what is needed to fix it and developed a cost outline of a 750 GHc loan (about $600) that could completely rennovate the facility. Because they will be charging for the use of the facility and there are thousands that need it but have nothing now, they will be able to make back the full cost in about 14 months. So we will take with the People's Dialogue office about making a micro-loan to the group for that amount to undertake this business venture. Once completed, it will be the groups job to maintain the facility and recieve the profit after the loan is paid back.

Now I am left with all this information, charged with the mission to create a proposal for a toilet in Klagbokorpe and a micro-loan proposal to rennovate the KVIP in Abotoase. It was a very interesting couple days and I grew immensely as I became empowered by the work and the potential I saw in the ability of people to solve problems themselves. I think it's key to invest in the people to solve the problem, to build the facility and maintain it so they will make sure it is kept in order and the benefit is fully within the community. I saw many other toilets that broke down after being built by an NGO and then were neglected, but I actually have faith that this one will stay for generations. It's a thrilling thing to see the difference that I as one person can make just by helping people translate a small, ineffective proposal they sent the office telling us about the issue, to using their stories to make a full scale proposal for an international donor, to guiding them in how to complete this project. The impact on the community will be enormous. Klagborpe has been around for many many years and has clamoured for toilets to NGOs and the District Assembly, but no one has come. The fact that the Federation, a group of 35 community members themselves can bring the project to the community themselves is a crowning and empowering achievement. I only pray that there is a funder out there willing to consider the project.

Just thought it was too important not to share!

Best,
Ben