Below: Pumping video
Although Bissighin does have water in the village, the Centre de Santé et Promotion Sociale (CSPS; Center for Health and Social Promotion), the health center in Bissighin, does not have a pump, except for one (shown above) across the village, about 1.5 km away. So the health center relies on water carried from across the village, sitting in a bowl until it is needed. Needless to say (but we say anyway, for emphasis), this is not the healthiest practice for a health center.
After Ilana arrived in Bissighin as a Peace Corps volunteer, she did a needs assessment, to determine directly from the villagers what they considered important gaps in resources. In Ilana’s words, from a grant proposal:
In a community needs assessment conducted in February of 2009, in which men and women were asked separately to identify and prioritize the problems in their community, the number one problem identified among men and women alike, was that there was no source of water at the CSPS.
Ilana developed a vision of a project to get a pump there, and called it “Pumping Life into Bissighin.” Again, in Ilana’s own words, from the grant proposal:
The goal of the Pumping Life into Bissighin project is to obtain a safe source of water at the health center in the village of Bissighin, thereby improving the quality of service at the center, and its ability to serve as an example of proper hygiene for the rest of the community. The health center of Bissighin was built in 2005 as part of a project to decentralize health care in Burkina Faso, and provides basic health care to a population of about 5,125 people in Bissighin. The center has neither electricity nor running water, and while solar panels are used to provide lighting at night, the closest water pump is over 1.5 kilometers from the CSPS, making the acquisition of water a constant problem. The community of Bissighin is therefore requesting funding for a water pump to be placed on the center’s grounds, thus providing a source of clean, readily available water. In conjunction with the acquisition of a pump, the community would like to start a moringa garden at the center, in order to ensure food security in the community and promote the use of moringa, a fast growing and highly nutritious tree, in treating and preventing malnutrition. The community will take on costs of starting the garden, as well as train a pump management committee of community members. The acquisition of a pump on the health center grounds would greatly increase the effectiveness and cleanliness of the center, and improve the health of the entire population.
However, despite various and repeated attempts to get grants to fund this project over the course of about a year, Ilana met substantial frustration. Some potential sources said they may be able to provide some money, but only if she found much more elsewhere. A Peace Corps mechanism to provide a Web site for soliciting contributions was available, but required that the village fund 25% of the project. It is typically used for much smaller projects, about ¼ or less the size (in money) of this one; Ilana anticipated that this project will cost on the order of $15,000. The villagers are motivated, but cannot come up with $3000 themselves in any reasonable amount of time. As Ilana has described in an earlier entry in this ‘blog, the savings and investment club she has helped organize has earned only the equivalent of tens of dollars over many months of operation, and that is quite a lot for them – and much or most of it comes from sales within the village.
Back around a year ago, when Ilana first described her vision to us, we did some low-key exploration about possible sources of funding. During that time, a cousin-in-law (Nicki’s late brother Dale’s wife Korrine’s cousin Karen) informed us about a project run, coincidentally, by a woman from Leesburg, Virginia, about ½ hour from us, specifically to raise money to provide water for people in Burkina Faso. We called Susan Hough and left a message. At the time we got no response. It turns out, we now know, that Susan at the time was dealing with a health issue of her own that prevented her from responding.
Then, as Ilana recently was expressing more and more frustration to us about her difficulty finding funding, I came again across Susan’s phone number, to inquire about Walking for Water. I called, and she answered. I described what Ilana was trying to accomplish. She made no promise, but said she would consider what Wisdom Spring, the organization through which Walking for Water is organized and administered, could do. And, incidentally, a walk for water to raise the funds would be happening in about a month or so from the time we were talking. Synchronicity finally – events lining up with the need, albeit after a substantial period of seemingly fruitless effort.
So, Saturday, May 8, we walked for water. We walked 8 km, about the distance from Bissighin to Ouahigouya. Here is the poster we made to show who we were walking for, made from pictures we took during our visit to Burkina Faso, Bissighin, and Ilana in January (some of which we will describe separately in another guest ‘blog entry):
Left: Me (Ken, Ilana’s abba = dad), Nicki (Ilana’s mother), and our nephew Michael Cohen, walking for water.
Below: Michael and his abba Mark, Nicki's brother, joined us (and contributed).
Below: A water stop part way through the Walking for Water. The weather initially was threatening rain, and we carried water with us – so it was almost a walk in, with, and for water – but ended up being only the latter two.
Below: The band, woven green, who played at the gathering site after the walk.
Below: Sobonfu Somé, Susan Hough, and us; Sobonfu, who is a Burkinabé, and Susan are the organizing force behind getting the wells in place. Sobonfu is also an author, spiritual leader, and more – see Web site reference above and http://www.sobonfu.com/ .
Below: Susan, Sobonfu, and a group of the students who helped organize and raise money for the walk – it is mainly the students’ project (see Web site reference above for more information).
We had, a couple of weeks before, sent an e-mail appeal to friends and family in our e-mail directory, asking them to consider contributing. Ultimately, through their (your) responses, we were one of two walking entities – the other being one of the high school students participating – roughly tied for raising the most – about $2000 each – thanks to all who contributed. In all, the effort raised more than $27,000 for developing water sources in Burkina Faso, and more is expected to come in in the next few weeks. (If you’re interested in learning about the organization and the effort, they are described at http://www.wisdomspring.org/ or at http://wisdomspring.organicmd.com/; click on the Walking for Water tab at the top for information on the event and donations.) In addition, Sobonfu indicated that the organization indeed does plan to put a well at the CSPS in Bissighin! At a gathering at Susan’s house afterwards, we called Ilana, who spoke to Sobonfu directly. Ilana’s excited, grateful, and pleased, especially because Sobonfu indicated that it’s a commitment that Ilana can tell the villagers about. Whew.
As we left Susan’s house, she asked if she could have the poster we made (we can make more). She especially likes the idea of having a specific, concrete project that the kids can see, to which their efforts are applied. On our side, we are very pleased that we can provide something in return, both the substantial contribution we raised and the concrete connection to a specific project. And many people have shared our pride in Ilana for the work she’s doing.
Coming - another guest 'blog about our visit to Burkina Faso, Bissighin, and Ilana.
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