Recently we decided to not only rely on personal gifts to finance the well drilling project in Bouassa. Not that we do not believe in the generosity of everyone, but more importantly this could take a long time! Our hearts really beat for this village, not far from Ouagadougou, the capital, and we hope to be a small answer to the great needs in this area.
Therefore, for last several weeks, we have gotten in touch with several French foundations that typically fund such projects. We are working hard to fill out their requested applications, and I can assure you they are huge! But this approach, in conjunction with really relevant organizations, such as “PS-EAU” or “Toilettes du Monde”, gives us a lot more work than expected. In the process of getting these applications ready, and meeting the requirements of these foundations, we needed to contact the mayor of the village. We had to make sure we had his support before going any further in our work. So, the mayor, who lives in Bouassa, welcomed our ideas with much joy and we should receive a letter of recommendation in the coming days. We also had to anticipate the future, and present a program that will ensure the sustainability of the project. It was in our initial plan for this project to be sustainable over the long term, but now we had to build a detailed application around more than just our thoughts!
Things are going faster than we expected!
But all this “extra” work seems justified and necessary. So we hope to be able to submit our application to 3 foundations by the end of the month. But an unexpected consequence of this more detailed approach is that we needed to modify our budget for it to be more coherent with some of the criteria from these applications. And that’s a good thing. In fact, even though we had anticipated many things, by analyzing each step, we realized it was missing several things. So today, the budget has increased to €34,000!
We now have more details about the reality of the context of this project. For example, and excuse this side note, which is a bit trivial, we discovered statistics showing that nearly half of the population of Burkina, and even more in Bouassa, do not have access to toilets and therefore openly defecate. For example, right next to houses, where the public health issues arise… And there isn’t a sanitation system in Bouassa. Water points have long been inadequate to meet the needs of the population and most of those that exist are no longer functional …
All these facts require us to have a more effective approach.
So we’ll set up a fee system relative to the drawn water. The amounts will be tiny, but they impose a concept of responsibility to consumers. A maintenance person will be responsible for the maintenance and collection of payments. The fees will pay the salary of the young man, who would have been trained beforehand to maintain the well, and additionally we will have the money to buy spare parts. These parts, like the well mechanisms, are manufactured in Burkina. Catholic priests have created a manufacturing company to help these populations.
For the latrines and showers, it’s very much a similar situation. The only ones that exist are ineffective. Those we would like to build will meet this critical need. Moreover the waste-water, once processed/recycled, will be used to water the vegetable garden.
The project is growing and we know that impact will be significant in the village.
Can we count on you to help make a difference?
THE SOLUTION:
ONE WELL PER VILLAGE:
We believe people, not water, can change everything! When you sponsor Well Drilling Project in Burkina Faso, Africa you’ll unlock the potential of an entire community