52 Pumps in 52 Weeks – Senegal – Project 1 - Dassilame Serere

Location
Dassilame Serere, Kaolack, Senegal

Community Description
Dassilame Serere is a small village of just over 500 people located in the delta region of Senegal. Its primary source of income is agriculture, but because of the beautiful landscape of the delta filled with mangroves, birds, and plentiful marine life, it has also become somewhat of an eco-tourism destination and now has several small hotels called campements. These along with the rest of the village are completely off the grid and rely solely on well water for drinking, irrigation, and other household needs.

Project Description
Pape Diouf, a native of the village, established one of these campements in 2007 and shortly after used the proceeds from it to start a one-hectare women’s garden on the premises. This garden gives local women a secondary source of income and allows them to increase the overall nutritional level of their households. There is one well in the garden from which everyone pulls water. The plan is to install one rope pump on the well to increase the overall ease and speed of watering this large space.

Project Impact
The members of the women's group will directly benefit from this pump along with many others who occasionally help with the garden. This first pump will also expose other groups to this technology and encourage them to join the project or even look into purchasing a pump on their own.

Comments
For more information on Pape's Eco-Capmepent check out his website: http://papediouf.uniterre.com/

Dollar Amount of Project
$100.00

Donations Collected to Date
$100.00

Dollar Amount Needed
$0.00 - This project has now been fully funded through the generosity or Randall Harward, of Ojai, CA, USA.

If you wish to contribute funds to go the overall program, go to the 52 Pumps in 52 Weeks Program - Senegal page and click on the general Donate button there.

This project has been finished. To read about the conclusion of the project, CLICK HERE.

Conclusion of 52 Pumps – Senegal – Project 1- Dassilame Serere

This project has been completed under the direction of Peace Corps Volunteers Marcie Todd and Garrison Harward. To read about the beginning of the project, CLICK HERE.

Marcie and Garrison report:

I would be lying if I said that I wasn't more than a little nervous to get this first pump installed. This would be the test: would the pump have a high enough output, would the villagers actually like it, and most importantly, for this project anyways, would the installation be straightforward enough that we could actually install a pump every week for the next year. I am happy to report that everything went amazingly smoothly.

We started by casting the pump into the half well cap, which turned out to be a little more difficult than I had anticipated. I think I will be hiring a mason from now on to help with these. Then came the waiting game. After about three days the cap was cured enough to complete the rest of the installation.

We mounted the cap and the pump on the well and as you can see the women can still easily pull water from the other half of the well if the pump should ever break down. Right now the gardening season is over and it has been about 8 months since it last rained but rest assured next season these fields will be filled with lush vegetables.

Pape was absolutely thrilled and now wants to build several basins throughout the field, connected with PCV piping, to easily bring water from this central source out to the far corners of the field. This would drastically reduce watering time for many of the women.

Pump Output: 30 Liters/ Min

Total Number of People Benefiting: 54

Funder: Randy and Liz Harward

52 Pumps in 52 Weeks – Senegal – Project 10 - Saare Gouna, Community Garden

Location
Saare Gouna, Senegal

Community Description
Saare Gouna is the third and final village in the clump of villages near Saare SambaThika.

Saare Gouna’s community garden is the best organized garden I have seen yet. There are 29 women who work in the garden and each one has her own space, divided by hundreds of tree branches sown together with prickly bush.

Each woman’s plot is a half a chord, though some of the older women have a bit more space, and they grow the veggies of their choosing.

Almost every woman grows hibiscus, whose leaves are harvested for sauce and flowers for juice, and okra. The combination is like the tomato basil duo we Americans grow in our back yards.

Project Description
Saare Gouna has one-well maintained and clean well located in the middle of their space. Each of the women pull about 20 buckets of water minimum for their gardens which becomes very tiresome, and a pump will speed along the process greatly while also saving energy.

Project Impact
The 29 members of the garden will directly benefit from the pump. Indirectly, all of their families will benefit as well.

Peace Corps Volunteer Directing Project
Marcie Todd

Comments
This is another great project to add to the string of successes. The benefit to the women and their families will be long lasting.

Dollar Amount of Project
$100.00

Donations Collected to Date
$100.00

Dollar Amount Needed
$0.00 - This project has now been fully funded through the generosity of Cynthia Sperry, of Fayetteville, NC, USA.

If you now contribute $100, your name will be placed on the waiting list to adopt the next project in order.

If you wish to contribute less than $100, the money will be applied toward the overall program.

This project has been finished. To read about the conclusion of the project, CLICK HERE.

Conclusion of 52 Pumps in 52 Weeks – Senegal – Project 10 - Saare Gouna, Community Garden

This project has been completed under the direction of Peace Corps Volunteer Marcie Todd. To read about the beginning of the project, CLICK HERE.

Marcie reports:

The completion of Saare Gouna happened almost a month ago and was the first pump to be successfully installed solely by my Senegalese counterparts. It is a bit late in the follow up because I came down with Malaria and have been recovering the last few weeks.

Barry, Lugman, and myself made a plan to head out to Saare Gouna, when I started to get feverish. I called to break our plans, but Barry said, “Let us go and if we have questions we’ll call.” They seemed so excited at the prospects of doing an installation on their own, so who was I to turn them down? They came by my house, picked up all the necessary supplies, and rode off, Lugman holding the bag on the back of Barry’s scooter.

Here is an account from their point of view:

“The affair started slow. It was a hot day so not many people wanted to work. We found two of the women’s husbands to come and help. We carried the piping from its storage place in Samba Thika to the garden and started fitting them together.

We threaded the rope through the pipe and tried to lower the pipe. We then realized we did not wait long enough for the glue to dry and the pipe started breaking. We pulled it out, re-glued and waited. While we were waiting some women came with ataya so we took a break. After the break, we put the pipe back down in the well and tied off the rope. We gave the pump a test, but the rope was too loose so we tightened it and tried again. This time water came out and everyone was happy.”

In two weeks we will go back and check out their work. I am so proud that they’ve learned the system and can go out to do the work on their own. Our team is truly starting to hit its stride!

Pump Output: Unknown Liters/ Min

Total Number of People Benefiting: 29 garden members directly and all of their families indirectly.

Funder: Cynthia Sperry

52 Pumps in 52 Weeks – Senegal – Project 11 - Thiawando

Location
Thiawando, Kaolack, Senegal

Community Description
Thiawando is a far cry from the remoteness of Keur Andallah, as it is located just 10 k outside of the regional capital, but amazingly it still has many of the same issues. It is a fairly large community of over 800 people, mostly peanut and millet farmers, but has only two wells with potable water. Of these two almost everyone in the village uses just one, because it is closer and the water slightly cleaner.

Here we have one of the classic problems that the Senegalese face: just 10k away in Kaolack there is electricity and running water but as soon as you leave the city center there just isn¹t the infrastructure or money to continue these amenities to surrounding villages.

Far from a sob story though, this village is thriving. It is a multicultural hub, as many villages in this region are, where almost everyone speaks three languages if not more. Also many people have jobs in the capital since it is so close, and as a result the village is obviously somewhat more prosperous than most.

The Mosque is beautiful and there is a large storage building for saving the community’s yearly harvest. Really the only thing holding them back is a lack of access to water.

Project Description
We will be installing a rope pump on the main community well from which most of the 800 residents drink. This should ease congestion around the well as it speeds up the process of pulling water.

In addition to this the village has expressed interest in starting a community garden next to the well. With the market being so close this will be a great small business opportunity and will help to increase overall nutrition in the village.

Project Impact
All 800 residents will benefit from the project through either increased speed pulling water, or increased financial security and nutrition from the garden.

Peace Corps Volunteer Directing Project
Garrison Harward and C.J. Pedersen

Comments
This is a high-impact project that will extend great benefit to the community at minimal cost.

Dollar Amount of Project
$100.00

Donations Collected to Date
$100.00

Dollar Amount Needed
$0.00 - This project has now been fully funded through the generosity of Susan Smith of Rockville, MD, USA.

If you now contribute $100, your name will be placed on the waiting list to adopt the next project in order.

If you wish to contribute less than $100, the money will be applied toward the overall program.

This project has been finished. To read about the conclusion of the project, CLICK HERE.

Conclusion of 52 Pumps in 52 Weeks – Senegal – Project 11 - Thiawando

This project has been completed under the direction of Peace Corps Volunteers Marcie Todd and Garrison Harward. To read about the beginning of the project, CLICK HERE.

Garrison reports:

After a long break I was excited to get back to installing pumps. This was my 6th install, and going in I finally felt like I had worked out all the kinks, and that I knew the system and things would just go smoothly as well. They did!

This was by far the easiest and most successful install yet for the Kaolack side of this project. We started out at the beginning of the week with the well cap as usual and quickly discovered that beyond just being motivated in terms of work, this village is quite creative.

We finished pouring the cement and mentioned that it might be nice to decorate the cap with some of the extra red and white stones. The men helping us took this idea and ran with it. They made a pattern around the outside alternating the colors and then wrote out Alhamdoulilahi (grace be to god) and made two crescent and star Islamic symbols on either side. They were quite proud of their work.

Unfortunately we finished a little late in the day and it looked like a pretty big storm was on the way. Not wanting their beautiful craftsmanship to be washed away, the men quickly ran out into the fields to cut tall grass which they arranged over the cap to protect it from the rain. This ingenious solution worked like a charm. Apart from a few minor raindrop indentations the cap cured nicely.

At the end of the week we came back to do the install and unfortunately it was not raining. In Senegal when humidity reaches 100% and the sun beats down at close to 100 degrees, people don’t work. We were on a schedule however so we got to it.

We installed the cap, fed the rope through the pipe and then lowered everything down. This well turned out to have several lips where it got narrower below the water line, but since we couldn’t see this we were having trouble knowing if we were really on the bottom. Never fear though, on a hot day such as this there was no shortage of volunteers ready and willing to go down into the well to check.

Once assured we were on the bottom we finished the install and started cranking. The kids ran up to play in the water, while the adults who had previously been somewhat skeptical looked in wide-eyed amazement and immediately started praising our work. One man walked up to me shook my hand and said “May god give you the strength to install these pumps all over Senegal.”

Satisfied but very tired we went back to C.J.’s compound (The PCV in Thiawando) for lunch and a nap. Not more than two hours later a man from the next village came by because he had seen the pump and wanted to know how he could get one for his own village. He was just about ready to schedule the date right then, but I told him to wait and see how people like this pump before we make a decision. Looks like I might be back in this region very soon.

This large community with only two wells has never had easy access to fresh water. With this new source they are already discussing possibilities for starting a community garden and fruit tree nursery. Based on what I’ve seen here they certainly have the motivation and dedication to get the job done. This is just the start of many good things to come in Thiawando.

Pump Output: 26 Liters/ Min

Total Number of People Benefiting: 800

Funder: Susan Smith

52 Pumps in 52 Weeks – Senegal – Project 12 - Dantaxoune

Location
Dantaxoune, Fatick, Senegal

Community Description
Dantaxoune is a small village outside of Sokone, which is home to the only primary school for 4 villages. There were, as of 2009, 99 female students and 94 male students.

The school is special in its function, as it also acts as an economic center. They raise chickens and buy millet when the price is low to sell when the price is high. This builds a sense in the students and parents alike that going to school will lead to economic success.

In 2008 Association Sine Salome installed a very large steel pump that could work for adults with large muscles, but the primary students had a hard time turning the wheel. They also installed fencing and a water basin for a school garden to increase the school’s economic potential.

In 2009 Peace Corps Volunteer Jessica O’Haren was contacted to help the school with tree pepinaires and at the end of her service she introduced Joey Johnston, the current volunteer, to Thiam and Diouff.

Thiam teaches Arabic, Diouff teaches French, and they both have a passion for the success of the school garden. Teachers in Senegal, as in many places, are not paid adequately and supplies for school are nil.

The money made from the garden, along with the other agricultural economic activities, helps to supplement the costs for materials and payment to the teachers. The garden also provides supplements to the school’s lunch plan, instituted by the World Food Program, which feeds kids that come from the further villages.

When Joey came to help, he quickly realized the lack of water was hindering their economic success and possible yields in the garden. The garden was almost exclusively growing okra and bissap. Okra and bissap are like tomatoes and basil in the United States; everyone grows them.

Last school season they started working on a more varied veggie garden, but had a hard time watering. They are now, pulling water from a well without a pulley located 30 meters away, which is similarly as hard as the massive steel pump for the smaller students. Also, it is preventing the students from wanting to water every day, leaving the plants water starved.

Project Description
This project is to build and install a rope pump for the school in Dantaxoune.

Project Impact
193 students will benefit from the project.

Peace Corps Volunteer Directing Project
Garrison Harward, Marcie Todd and Joey Johnston

Comments
The installation of the water pump will alleviate many of the water issues and make caring for the garden much easier. In turn, it will provide the school food program with more supplemental food as well as money for materials and teacher-pay.

Dollar Amount of Project
$100.00

Donations Collected to Date
$100.00

Dollar Amount Needed
$0.00 - This project has now been fully funded through the generosity of Tristan Harward, of Cambridge, MA, USA.

If you now contribute $100, your name will be placed on the waiting list to adopt the next project in order.

If you wish to contribute less than $100, the money will be applied toward the overall program.

This project has been finished. To read about the conclusion of the project, CLICK HERE.

Conclusion of 52 Pumps in 52 Weeks – Senegal – Project 12 – Dantaxoune

This project has been completed under the direction of Peace Corps Volunteers Marcie Todd, Garrison Harward, and Joey Johnston. To read about the beginning of the project, CLICK HERE.

In this project, Marcie and Garrison began to implement a new process to prefabricate a number of pumps at once and then take them out to the individual towns for installation.

Marcie reports:

The first day of our 5 pumps in 5 days challenge began with a trek to Joey’s village school located slightly inland from the Delta. Garrison and I prepared all the material, grabbed our bikes and hopped on an Alhum- a makeshift bus/van with bench seats able to carry more than 50 people. Once we made it to Joey’s road town we stopped for breakfast and made an unexpected friend who showed us photos of her past life and family members while we waited for Joey to arrive.

Joey, Garrison, and I strapped the materials to our bikes and made our way to the school down bush-path roads. A few times we got stuck in sand and had to walk the bikes through. The first thing we saw upon arrival was this huge prehistoric steel pump that pronounced problems for the future, but luckily we also had about 7 buff men including a happenstance mason around to help.

The men quickly grabbed materials and began disassembling the old pump and installing the new pump while Joey, Garrison, and I began the process of fitting pipe and threading the rope. The assembly was very quick and we even had time to build a step for the kids to better reach the pump handle. All in all, this pump install was a success and one of the easiest installs yet!

Pump Output: 33 Liters/ Min

Total Number of People Benefiting: 109, mostly children

Funder: Tristan Harward

52 Pumps in 52 Weeks – Senegal – Project 13 - Dassilame Serere Eco Campament Pump Expansion Project

Location
Dassilame Serere, Fatick, Senegal

Community Description
Marcie describes:

Dassilame Serere was the location of our very first pump! It is located in the delta region of Senegal about 25 km north of The Gambia. Since we were last here things have been changing a lot, in a relative sense compared to the rate at which things normally change here.

There is now another large gardening group, extensive improved rice cultivation, and even some new small businesses popping up. We wish we could say this was all due to Peace Corps, but in reality there have been a lot of new NGO projects coming in. The community is very lucky but they work hard to deserve everything they're given, and it shows in the success of these projects.

Project Description
Marcie further describes:

We've come back here to install a second rope pump in Pape Diouf's women's garden. Pretty soon after the installation of the first pump Pape approached us asking if it would be possible to put a pump on the second well since its closer to many of the women's plots.

At first we were hesitant wanting to spread these pumps to as many villages as possible, but then it occurred to us that we may make a larger impact by installing within a smaller area and fully meeting the needs of the people there. This seems to be a better idea then only doing half the job in one garden in order to do half the job somewhere else. As such we are coming back to finish the job here!

On top of just the pump, Pape and Garrison are working on a basin project to help more easily distribute water out to the far corners of the field and fully take advantage of the increased efficiency the pumps bring.

Project Impact
All 54 members of the group will benefit from the increased efficiency of pulling water.

Peace Corps Volunteer Directing Project
Garrison Harward and Marcie Todd

Comments
On top of the benefit to the women, the pump is also great for the campament and the tourist love it. It shows how innovative and forward thinking the village really is and is fun for the guests. Happy guests equals job security for the workers and a steady cash flow for upkeep which can be expensive after a hard rainy season.

Dollar Amount of Project
$100.00

Donations Collected to Date
$100.00

Dollar Amount Needed
$0.00 - This project has now been fully funded through the generosity of Caroline Fahmy of San Jose, CA, USA.

If you now contribute $100, your name will be placed on the waiting list to adopt the next project in order.

If you wish to contribute less than $100, the money will be applied toward the overall program.

This project has been finished. To read about the conclusion of the project, CLICK HERE.

Conclusion of 52 Pumps in 52 Weeks – Senegal – Project 13 - Dassilame Serere Eco Campament Pump Expansion Project

This project has been completed under the direction of Peace Corps Volunteers Marcie Todd and Garrison Harward. To read about the beginning of the project, CLICK HERE.

Marcie and Garrison report:

As we said before this is the second pump we’ve partnered with Pape on and as such the work was pretty straightforward. Pape picked up the supplies for us and Garrison cast the cap the week before, so on the actual install day we only had to lift the cap, and install the piping.

We got there early and did precisely that… lucky number thirteen turned out to be pretty lucky indeed. No problems, no adventures, not even any stories really. Development work as an adventure with difficult struggles and beautiful cultural exchanges is certainly interesting, but sometimes there is just a need to be filled and the job gets done and that’s it. Not all that interesting but pretty effective.

Our most interesting part of this install was actually watching how all the tourists interacted with it. They watched us fascinated and then played with the pump afterwards. In the west we love toys, and to some extent water pumps are like toys, which is probably why so many of them get installed even if the particular model isn’t appropriate or very effective. Technology isn’t always better than manual labor. That said this pump IS better and much more efficient then pulling by hand at an appropriate depth. Dassilame Serere has a wonderfully shallow water table, which makes this particular pump very worthwhile.

Pape and Garrison are also now working on a project which will take this increased efficiency and magnify it by using the pumps to help distribute water to 6 basins spread throughout the field. Once complete no woman will have a plot more then 15-20 meters away from a water source. Previously they may have had to carry water upwards of 50 meters, a difficult feat when watering an entire garden.

Pump Output: 30 Liters/ Min

Total Number of People Benefiting: 64

Funder: Caroline Fahmy

52 Pumps in 52 Weeks – Senegal – Project 14 - Dassilame Serere Revisited

Location
Dassilame Serere, Fatick, Senegal

Community Description
Yep we're back here in Dassilame Serere once again. We've already described quite a bit about this village, but this is a good opportunity to emphasize one last facet of its personality. Dassilame Serere is persistent! Ever since we installed the first pump here the village has been requesting more and pushing for us to repair 4 existing pumps.

We initially held off wanting to spread the pumps far and wide while in the meantime Garrison helped them with other projects such as tree nurseries and improved gardening techniques. They kept pushing though, and in the end that kind of persistence, enthusiasm and work ethic needs to be rewarded so here we are.

Project Description
This project is to repair 4 existing pumps.

Almost immediately after we installed the first pump, Lamine (our welder in Toubacouta) was approached by a private group wanting to install more pumps in the area. This was a great opportunity for Lamine and thus he simply couldn't refuse even though he really didn't have the skills to be installing pumps on his own yet. The site selected turned out to be a women's group in Dassilame Serere.

Of course we would have offered to help, as the overall goal of the project is to establish pump producers who can have a profitable small business doing installs on their own, but unfortunately Garrison was out of village at a Peace Corps conference, and didn't get back until the day of the install. At this point it was too late to influence much and things just didn't go well. Corners were cut, as Lamine and the funders tried to finish.

4 installs in one day and in the end only 3 pumps ever worked. To make matters worse, those 3 only worked for about a month before various problems cropped, up eventually making them completely unusable. In a way, as much as we would like to blame Lamine or the funders for the spotty work this is our mess to clean up too. We brought the technology to the area so it’s our responsibility to make sure it works.

Project Impact
All 65 members of the group will benefit from increased speed pulling water and thus less congestion at the well.

Peace Corps Volunteer Directing Project
Garrison Harward and Marcie Todd

Comments
This is a 4 for the price of 1 deal! Since the pumps are already there all of the money goes to supplementary materials meaning that we can fix all 4 pumps for the price of 1!

For the future, there are two brand new wells being built here and if all goes well they could become part of our 52.

Dollar Amount of Project
$100.00

Donations Collected to Date
$100.00

Dollar Amount Needed
$0.00 - This project has now been fully funded through the generosity of Jacqueline Chan, of Crestline, CA, USA in honor of Mrs. Julia Chung-Lun, of Sydney, NSW, Australia.

If you now contribute $100, your name will be placed on the waiting list to adopt the next project in order.

If you wish to contribute less than $100, the money will be applied toward the overall program.

This project has been finished. To read about the conclusion of the project, CLICK HERE.

Conclusion of 52 Pumps in 52 Weeks – Senegal – Project 14 - Dassilame Serere Revisited

This project has been completed under the direction of Peace Corps Volunteers Marcie Todd and Garrison Harward. To read about the beginning of the project, CLICK HERE.

Garrison and Marcie report:

We mentioned in our initial post about this 5 pump tourney that we were going to do some experiments and these 4 pumps offered us the perfect place to do so. The morning of the repairs we got up very early. Installing one pump is hard enough, but with 4, things could really take a turn for the worse. We got out to the field and met Lamine who came in free of charge to help repair the pumps. He really did feel bad that they weren't working and was thrilled to be able to make things right.

We fitted the first pump with Garrison's standard system and then the second with Marcie's. Being so far apart, we naturally drifted towards different methods as we experimented on our own, so we were really curious to see which method works best. It turned out that Marcie's rope system gave a higher output while Garrison's was easier requiring less strength. We naturally decided to try a composite of both rope types, Garrison's knots with Marcie's washers. Low and behold the porridge was just right.

Lamine's enthusiasm took over immediately as he ran back to Toubacouta to make a better punch for cutting the rubber washers and also brought back an improved guide block that didn't have to be tediously shaped over a fire and later cemented. The final pump with all of these improvements really was perfect. You may also notice that these pumps are placed two by two on the wells. This was also Lamine's idea when he did the original install, and while it isn't always necessary, it’s a great way to increase efficiency even further if the volume of water required is high enough.

The women who had previously been very skeptical of the pumps couldn't stop thanking us. Their thanks came with one caveat though. The rims of the wells are so high that anyone using the pumps has to extent their arms almost above their heads to use them. Anyone can tell you this is not the optimum position for strength. Never fear though; we have enough money left over on this install to purchase some cement to make a few steps. With this one last improvement these pumps should be a great help to this dedicated group of women.

Pump Output: 35 Liters/ Min (Average for all 4)

Total Number of People Benefiting: 65

Funder: Jacqueline Chan in honor of Mrs. Julia Chung-Lun

52 Pumps in 52 Weeks – Senegal – Project 15 - Daro Keur Ibrahima Signane

Location
Daro Keur Ibrahima Signane, Fatick, Senegal

Community Description
Daro is located just off the laterite road going from Toubacouta to Saloum Diane. We first started looking into this village after the Keur Andallah pump when we literally stopped in on the bike ride home. As soon as we did and saw their broken down water pump, we knew Daro had to be part of the project.

The village is small, only about 300 people, and predominately Wolof, but like everywhere in this region there are a few Mandinkans, Sereres and Pulaars. There is a primary school which almost all the children attend and a substantial community garden established by a previous Peace Corps Volunteer. It is primarily an agricultural village and the people here are already excellent gardeners and farmers. They have had a wonderful relationship with Peace Corps over the years and are continually learning and expanding their efforts.

Project Description
The community garden provides 75 people with fenced in plots for vegetable production. It sits within a flood basin which means that the water table is very high and perfect for rope pumps. There are two wells in this space and thus we will be installing two rope pumps. Pump #16 will be the second in this space.

Project Impact
All 75 members of the group will benefit from increased access to water. This should lead to increased production which will then increase overall nutrition in the village for kids like these.

Peace Corps Volunteer Directing Project
Garrison Harward, Marcie Todd, and Amy Watts

Comments
These pumps will decrease crowding around the well and speed up the process of watering, allowing more time to be devoted to trying new gardening techniques and increasing yields.

This is the first of two pumps in this space. We're going to be trying to do more double installs like this in order to fully meet the needs of our villages.

Dollar Amount of Project
$100.00

Donations Collected to Date
$100.00

Dollar Amount Needed
$0.00 - This project has now been fully funded through the generosity of Jacqueline Chan, of Crestline, CA, USA in honor of Steve Cockwell, of Uxbridge, Ontario, Canada.

If you now contribute $150 (our new price, which includes labor), your name will be placed on the waiting list to adopt the next project in order.

If you wish to contribute less than $150, the money will be applied toward the overall program.

This project has been finished. To read about the conclusion of the project, CLICK HERE.

Conclusion of 52 Pumps in 52 Weeks – Senegal – Project 15 - Daro Keur Ibrahima Signane

This project has been completed under the direction of Peace Corps Volunteers Marcie Todd and Garrison Harward. To read about the beginning of the project, CLICK HERE.

Marcie and Garrison report:

This pump has been a long time in the making. We initially did the village meetings before the rainy season, prepped the well cap during the rainy season, and finished the install after, and now finally we're writing everything up. There really are a lot of steps that go into installing a pump.

This pump was a part of our 5 pump tour so luckily both of us got to be here for the install. Amy Watts, the volunteer in Daro, helped Garrison do the prep work on the well cap and Marcie came out for the Install. As is the norm in Senegal though, things didn't go exactly according to plan.

The day that we decided to cast the well cap turned out to be the same day as the last rain of the rainy season. It was quite a torrent. At first we thought maybe we could just ride it out under a tree, but the rain just kept getting heavier and heavier. We decided to make a run for it and just in time.

As soon as we got back to Amy's hut the lighting started striking much too close for comfort. Half an hour of hunkering down though and the storm had passed and we were ready to finish the cap.

When Marcie arrived we had our second big hang up. The village wasn't able to find the right PVC pipe so we had to spend all morning searching in Toubacouta and in the end splicing together several pipes to get the full length. We didn't even start the install until after lunch and needless to say it was hot. Morning really is a much more preferable time to work here.

In the end though we went through the routine, hooked everything up and exchanged high fives and hugs when the water started flowing. The problems were minor compared with the benefits. The village was thrilled and is talking about the possibility of expanding their garden and investing in a basin system. We'll keep you updated as things progress.

Pump Output: 37 Liters/ Min

Total Number of People Benefiting: 75

Funder: Jacqueline Chan in honor of Steve Cockwell

52 Pumps in 52 Weeks – Senegal – Project 16 - Daro Keur Ibrahima Signane, Community Garden

Location
Daro Keur Ibrahima Signane, Fatick, Senegal

Community Description
This project is being implemented in the community of Daro Keur Ibrahima Signane, which was described in Project 15.

Pump number 16 completes the 5 pumps in 5 days series. Darou Keur Ibrahima Signane (DKIS for short) is a true community space. Within the hectare are 83 plots owned by 78 families, as almost each family in DKIS gardens. Most of the garden is used to produce for the village while 10 percent of the garden space is marked off for market gardening and selling at DKIS local market.

Each day of the week in roadside towns across Senegal is a local market called a luumo. Luumo is where many people in villages go to buy their produce for the week as well as other essentials such as clothes, furniture, and rope. Luumos carry a lot of the products to the village that can only be found in bigger cities. This saves villagers from having to travel to a city. Also, the luumo gives producers access to a market close to home to sell their products. At the luumo DKIS sells hot peppers and green peppers.

Project Description
The pump being installed here will be the second in this space, the first having been described under Project 15.

Project Impact
78 families will benefit from this project.

Peace Corps Volunteer Directing Project
Garrison Harward, Marcie Todd, and Amy Watts

Comments
This project further proves the benefit of scale achieved from working on double pumps and pumps in a concentrated geographical area.

Dollar Amount of Project
$100.00

Donations Collected to Date
$100.00

Dollar Amount Needed
$0.00 - This project has now been fully funded through the generosity of Jacqueline Chan, of Crestline, CA, USA in honor of Heather Chan, of Uxbridge, Ontario, Canada.

If you now contribute $150 (our new price, which includes labor), your name will be placed on the waiting list to adopt the next project in order.

If you wish to contribute less than $150, the money will be applied toward the overall program.

This project has been finished. To read about the conclusion of the project, CLICK HERE.

Conclusion of 52 Pumps in 52 Weeks – Senegal – Project 16 - Daro Keur Ibrahima Signane, Community Garden

This project has been completed under the direction of Peace Corps Volunteers Marcie Todd, Garrison Harward, and Amy Watts. To read about the beginning of the project, CLICK HERE.

Marcie reports:

With the conclusion of this second pump in the space, there is now adequate water readily available to properly irrigate the community garden.

In the morning the young boys of the town come to water before heading off to school. The real times to come down the hill though are for the evening watering sessions which are a social event in DKIS and many women shower and put on nice clothes before kicking off their flip-flops and filling their watering cans.

There are two main community leaders in Daro Keur Ibrahima Signane (DKIS) to whom Peace Corps Volunteer Amy Watts attributes DKIS’s success. Baboucar Boussou and Cheikh Dione genuinely want to see their village succeed and have worked hard to make sure it happens.

Baboucar Boussou is hard working, cleaver, innovative, and a dependable peace-maker in times of community division. He is the community leader for all things food-related in DKIS including the school lunch program and directing the women’s garden. Baboucar does a role reversal taking on the director position of the women’s garden as that is traditionally a woman’s job. He handles everything from the division of plots to materials and does it with ease while also working on his field crops and working with other organizations such as Wula Nafaa.

Cheikh Dione is the full time director of the primary school, a part-time farmer, and he and Baboucar are stuck at the hip. Cheikh speaks English, Arabic, French, and Wolof, is super bright, always smiling and only 33 years old. Cheikh is a staple at the community garden and one can often find him wandering around helping the women water.

Peace Corps has been working in DKIS for the last 5 years but the women’s garden was established only 3 years ago. It has come a long way, as every single plot is filled and more is produced each year!

Pump Output: 37 Liters/ Min

Total Number of People Benefiting: 78 families

Funder: Jacqueline Chan in honor of Heather Chan

52 Pumps in 52 Weeks – Senegal – Project 17 – Faraba, Moringa Garden

Location
Faraba, Senegal

Community Description
Meet Mamadou Barry, Abou and Jacob. Mamadou Barry has a huge passion for Senegal and particularly Kolda. His interests include: farming okra, beans, and rice, in addition to setting up community/youth -programs to prevent the dreaded “brain drain.”

Mamadou is a sort of jack-of-all-trades. He has started a kindergarten, a theater troop, a farm for youth, and a cowpea buying and selling business, all of which have been successful. He is ambitious, kind and we are lucky to be working with him.

Abou is Barry’s right-hand-man; you rarely see one without the other. Abou is tall, loves to read and write, and is more technical than social. The two couldn’t be more opposite, but they balance each other fully.

Abou is designing and building his own house, has been a sheep herder, owned a mango orchard and is one of the best tinkerers in Senegal.

Jacob is an Agricultural Peace Corps Volunteer serving in the Kolda, Senegal. He lives in Medina Abdoul, a rural village 40 km outside the regional capital where he organizes initiatives to promote food security and sustainable agriculture techniques. He graduated from the University of California at Davis where he studied World Trade and Development in Developing Countries. He’s entrepreneurial-minded and likes to break a sweat playing in the dirt. One day he hopes to start a venture capital firm focused on developing markets.

These are the main folks that make up Agribusiness. Agribusiness has been working with women’s groups providing them technical support in growing cowpeas and this year they are expanding their business to include Moringa powder and oil production. Installing two pumps in their 4 hectare space will help them water over 750 trees this year with plans of over a million in the coming year.

Moringa Powder is made by drying and then pounding leaves. The powder is an incredibly healthy supplement that can be added to almost every meal just as one would add pepper. It prevents malnutrition and even tastes good.

Project Description
This is kind of a special pump because Agribusiness does so many cool things for the Kolda Community so these posts just explain who they are, while the #18 posts will talk more about Moringa and the benefits. Appropriate Projects also gave this group a grant for digging wells done by Jacob Rice and Gregg Mathews.

Project Impact
432 people will benefit from this project.

Peace Corps Volunteer Directing Project
Marcie Todd, Jacob Rice, Gregg Mathews and Mary Martin-Mabry

Comments
Moringa Powder is made by drying and then pounding leaves. The powder is an incredibly healthy supplement that can be added to almost every meal just as one would add pepper. It prevents malnutrition and even tastes good.

Dollar Amount of Project
$100.00

Donations Collected to Date
$100.00

Dollar Amount Needed
$0.00 - This project has now been fully funded through the generosity of Cynthia J. Davidson of Chico, CA, USA.

If you now contribute $150 (our new price, which includes labor), your name will be placed on the waiting list to adopt the next project in order.

If you wish to contribute less than $150, the money will be applied toward the overall program.

This project has been finished. To read about the conclusion of the project, CLICK HERE.

Conclusion of 52 Pumps in 52 Weeks – Senegal – Project 17 – Faraba, Moringa Garden

This project has been completed under the direction of Peace Corps Volunteers Marcie Todd and Garrison Harward. To read about the beginning of the project, CLICK HERE.

Marcie reports:

We’ve explained the process of installing pumps in great detail many times, so with this install going so smoothly we thought we’d take extra time to explain the background of our wonderful partner organization for this pump.

Ballal Agribusiness is committed to developing female farmers with the best agricultural practices because trained farmers produce better crops, feed their families and strengthen communities. They have three main areas of focus: cowpea production, community banking and Moringa Powder. Currently, Ballal is working with 18 communities and plans to expand to 21 this rainy season.

By supplying farmers with the best practices of growing profitable and nutritious food for local consumption, Ballal Agribusiness helps farmers increase production of already locally grown crops and gives them a fair price for their labors.

Community Banking is a significant portion of the Ballal mission. It is extremely important that women not only have access to money, but also have support in understanding how to save, spend, and make money most efficiently.

The banking system is set up in the following way:

1. The women’s group gathers to talk about what they want as a community.  They talk about the ups and downs to creating a community bank.
2. If they agree that the community bank will work for their group, each woman adds 500 CFA (approximately $1) to the pot.  The pot is usually anywhere from 10,000 CFA to 15,000 CFA ($20-30).
3. The money each woman has contributed is recorded along with the initial total amount.  All funds are immediately lent.  No one person stores the money.  4-6 women take a microfinance loan and agree to pay a few hundred CFA as interest during the next meeting.
4. As the bank gets larger, more women get to take a piece of the pot.  As more women take out loans the money increases.  As the money increases the women have more economic possibilities and freedom.  As they have more freedom, their families benefit, more creative solutions to daily problems arise and, overall, society moves forward.

The third section of Ballal is the Moringa Powder project, which is where we come in. The project came about during the last rainy season, but unfortunately this year the rains were very bad, so many of the trees planted this season died, leaving the Ballal team a bit defeated.

However, through Appropriate Projects funding, the group was able to get water to the trees by digging 2 wells and now with this pump and the next one installed for #18 the sky’s the limit for this project. Things are now moving along as planned and the goal to increase the availability of Moringa powder in health posts in the Kolda region looks like it will be reached.

We are proud to be able add our pumps as just one of the many innovations this wonderful group is using to engage and help the local populations of the Kolda region.

Pump Output: 41 Liters/ Min

Total Number of People Benefiting: 432

Funder: Cynthia J. Davidson

52 Pumps in 52 Weeks – Senegal – Project 18 - Faraba, Moringa Garden (Part 2)

Location
Faraba, Kolda, Senegal

Community Description
Smack in the middle of two villages is a vast stretch of farmland. About 95 men and women farm here during the rainy season, but only 7 garden during the dry season because of a lack of water. The 7 lucky gardeners own plots near the river so during the dry season they easily pull water. One of these plots, owned by Mamadou Barry (who we learned about in the last post) and Ballal Agribusiness, is serving as a Moringa garden, community learning space, and a women’s group garden. This is the second of the two pumps installed here.

Project Description
We are placing a second water pump in the Faraba Moringa Garden to enable the women’s group that works there to start its own vegetable garden. The members will plant onions, okra, and hot pepper then harvest and sell them in the Kolda market.

Project Impact
18 women and 7 men and their families will benefit from the project.

Peace Corps Volunteer Directing Project
Jacob Rice, Gregg Mathews, Mary Martin-Mabry, and Marcie Todd

Comments
This will greatly benefit the nutrition of the families in the group by providing adequate water to irrigate the vegetable garden during the dry season.

Dollar Amount of Project
$100.00

Donations Collected to Date
$100.00

Dollar Amount Needed
$0.00 - This project has now been fully funded through the generosity of Julia Chung-Lun, of Sydney, Australia, in honor of Jacqueline Chan, USA.

If you now contribute $150 (our new price, which includes labor), your name will be placed on the waiting list to adopt the next project in order.

If you wish to contribute less than $150, the money will be applied toward the overall program.

This project has been finished. To read about the conclusion of the project, CLICK HERE.

Conclusion of 52 Pumps in 52 Weeks – Senegal – Project 18 - Faraba, Moringa Garden (Part 2)

This project has been completed under the direction of Peace Corps Volunteers Marcie Todd and Garrison Harward. To read about the beginning of the project, CLICK HERE.

The project was to place a second water pump in the Faraba Moringa Garden to enable the women’s group that works there to start its own vegetable garden.

Marcie reports:

The pump installation for #18 went very smoothly and so we figured we would talk a little about what moringa is and why a moringa garden is useful.

Moringa Oleifera is an amazingly nutritious tree with a variety of uses. One may not see this tree as something special, as it is slender, doesn’t grow very high, doesn’t provide much shade and seems a bit flimsy, but they eyes can be deceiving. One can eat immature seed-pods like one would green beans, make oil from the seeds that is used in many beauty products, filter water, produce fodder for animals, and even treat malnutrition with its leaf powder. The moringa tree is considered one of the world’s most useful trees as almost every single aspect of the tree can be used for something beneficial.

When consumed moringa has 7 times the vitamin C that is in an orange, 13 times the vitamin A in spinach, 3 times the potassium in a banana, and 2 times the protein of yogurt. This is a major malnutrition-fighting tree, as it even helps new mothers produce more breast milk. Leaves can be eaten fresh, cooked, or stored as dried powder for many months without refrigeration, and reportedly without loss of nutritional value. Moringa is especially promising as a food source in the tropics because the tree is in full leaf at the end of the dry season when other foods are typically scarce.

Ballal Agribusiness and their women’s groups are working a three-fold operation with moringa. They are growing intensive beds for leaf harvest and powder production, collecting seed for oil production and producing animal feed from oil production remnants.

Pump Output: 39 Liters/ Min

Total Number of People Benefiting: 25

Funder: Julia Chung-Lun in honor of Water Charity’s Executive Director Dr. Jacqueline Chan

52 Pumps in 52 Weeks – Senegal – Project 19 Thiawando, Community Well

Location
Thiawando, Kaolack, Senegal

Community Description
Pump #11 was our first project in this village, and if you go back and look at some of the pictures you’ll notice it was quite a bit greener the first time around. That’s the difference here between the rainy season and dry season, and why access to water is so incredibly crucial for local populations. Here in Thiawando things are very hot and dry but the population is still just as wonderful, hospitable, and hopeful as ever.

They are still hoping to start a community garden around the first well, but even before that happens several individuals are gardening in their homes and the pump is being thoroughly appreciated by the local cattle. It had some problems briefly and the women were up in arms until the village repaired it showing just how appreciated it was.

This is a village of over 800 people and with such a large population one pump on one well is helpful but it isn’t fully meeting the needs here.

Project Description
There is a second well in the village about 100 m from the first which is actually slightly shallower and larger. This means that the pump should work even better here than on the first well.

The plan is to install this second pump to further increase access to fresh clean water and facilitate the future establishment of a second gardening space. This pump will also help to provide those living on the outskirts of the village with closer access to water. An extra 100 m to walk to the far pump doesn’t sound like all that much, but it sure feels like a lot with 40 liters of water on your head.

Project Impact
All 800 residents will benefit from the project.

Peace Corps Volunteer Directing Project
Garrison Harward and C.J. Pederson

Comments

Dollar Amount of Project
$100.00

Donations Collected to Date
$100.00

Dollar Amount Needed
$0.00 - This project has now been fully funded through the generosity of Vicki Ringer, of Woodland Hills, CA, USA.

If you now contribute $150 (our new price, which includes labor), your name will be placed on the waiting list to adopt the next project in order.

If you wish to contribute less than $150, the money will be applied toward the overall program.

This project has been finished. To read about the conclusion of the project, CLICK HERE.

Conclusion of 52 Pumps in 52 Weeks – Senegal – Project 19 - Thiawando, Community Well

This project has been completed under the direction of Peace Corps Volunteers Marcie Todd and Garrison Harward. To read about the beginning of the project, CLICK HERE.

Garrison reports:

In the course of any good appropriate technology’s development things should be changed, innovated and tested to ensure that the product is always improving and ends up as the best possible version of that technology. Yes this is the normal course we should be and are taking but it occasionally leads to innovations being tried that simply fail. That’s what happened here with Thiawando #2.

We decided to try out a new turn block system (the thing that sits at the bottom of the well to turn the rope and send it back up the pipe) which we thought would be much simpler and easier to produce on a large scale. The previous block was a piece of PVC tediously shaped into a 180 degree “U” and placed in a block of cement to make it sit on the bottom. The new system was a little metal square made out of tube steel that straps to the pipe so that the rope can theoretically roll over any edge at any angle as it turns around and then goes into the pipe. A little confusing I know, and the pump thought so too. This system worked perfectly on our experiments with Pump#14 but for some reason it didn’t work here causing us to put this pump on hold for over a month.

In the end we went with the old system which we know works perfectly well. We’re still not sure what went wrong but it’s better to go with what works while we figure it out.

The rest of the install went really smoothly. This being the second pump here, the village was familiar with the process already and had all the materials collected and waiting when we got there. They made the cap while we hung out with the kids and let them practice their English with us. There is a CEM (Junior High) not too far from the village, so lots of the kids are starting to learn English. They have big dreams, much bigger than a pump can provide, but we’re happy to be moving in the right direction with them on the long road Senegal is traveling.

Pump Output: 35 Liters/ Min

Total Number of People Benefiting: 800

Funder: Vicki Ringer

52 Pumps in 52 Weeks – Senegal – Project 2 - Saare Yero Diao

Location
Saare Yero Diao, Kolda, Senegal

Community Description
Yero Diao is a small village of 170 people located in the south of Senegal, West of Kolda. It was founded 32 years ago by Mr. Yero Diao himself. Yero in Pulaar (the local language) means example and Diao is a familiar last name.

The village’s primary sources of income are agriculture and silviculture. They grow veggies in the wet season and pick mangoes and cashews in the dry season. Yero Diao is about 15 k from the main road, 22k from Kolda and completely off the grid. They have no electricity, running water or health post, but they do have an awful lot of mangoes. In fact, every time a ripe mango falls from the trees, you hear a thud, “DOGE!” and then everyone in village runs to see who gets to eat the ripe mango.

Project Description
Cawral, the woman’s group in Yero Diao, established a community garden a few years back. This garden gives local women income needed to buy new clothes and send their kids to school and allows them to increase the overall nutritional levels in their households.

There is one rather large and deep well in the garden, from which mostly young women pull water. Providing this village with a rope pump will make pulling water more efficient. It will increase the amount of water they can pull in a given amount of time allowing them to focus more energy tending to their plants and increasing overall yields.

Project Impact
The 37 members of the women's group will directly benefit from this pump along with all of those who use the pump for daily water access- showers, drinking, and cooking. When we asked Demba Balde, the Mayor of the village, how many people he thought would benefit from the installation of the rope pump he said, “I think the whole town will benefit.”

Comments
It is exciting to see this program move on to the second pump. Please tell your friends about it, and get ready to step up and adopt your very own pump as we proceed each week through the year.

Dollar Amount of Project
$100.00

Donations Collected to Date
$100.00

Dollar Amount Needed
$0.00 - This project has now been fully funded through the generosity of Katherine Murray, of San Leandro, CA, USA.

If you wish to contribute funds to go the overall program, go to the 52 Pumps in 52 Weeks Program - Senegal page and click on the general Donate button there.

This project has been finished. To read about the conclusion of the project, CLICK HERE.

Conclusion of 52 Pumps in 52 Weeks – Senegal – Project 2 - Saare Yero Diao

This project has been completed under the direction of Peace Corps Volunteers Marcie Todd and Garrison Harward. To read about the beginning of the project, CLICK HERE.

Marcie and Garrison report:

Early one Sunday morning the mason (Sow), the instructor (Barry) and myself (Marcie), packed all of our materials, put huge smiles on our faces and with the excitement of 40 small kids eating lollipops, we got in a rickety taxi bound for Saare Yero Diao. Though I was smiling on the outside, butterflies were twirling round and round in my stomach for what was to come. I often wonder when the nerves of installing a pump will disappear, but at the same time, maybe those nerves are what keeps us doing good work. I guess only time will tell.

Upon arrival we were greeted by the whole village and immediately went to sit under the mango tree, where people feel automatically comfortable and the habitual last-name banter commenced. “You’re a Balde (typical last-name); you must love beans, you eat them till you’re full, don’t you?!” It is such an interesting way to joke, but it will, without a doubt, get everyone laughing.

We then started the actual work with most members of the village helping and asking questions. It was all quite magical and exactly the type of participation one wants, but then came the first problem. We realized the bolts we had just cemented into the cap were too big for the pump. This led us to our second problem: we had no ride back to town. Sow, Barry, the pump and myself strapped our shoes on tight and started making the trip back to Kolda. It wasn¹t until the second village we passed that we had some saving grace. The members of Saare Boussura Maka had a chariot on which to bring us home and also have interest in becoming one of the next villages to get a pump.

We headed back to Yero Diao the following Friday fixed pump in hand and a driver that was willing to wait 2 hours for us to install the pump and give a training on how each part works. Once again the whole village was excited and ready to learn. Therefore, the installation went quickly and we even had time to take a large tour of the town and greet everyone in it.

All in all, though the installation of this pump was less than smooth, we learned the importance of being more organized. The women danced and the young ones laughed and played under the spout while the men pumped the water.

Everyone is extremely excited and can see a brighter future for their garden. In fact, the women’s group said they can now sign a contract to produce a large amount of okra for a local NGO.

Pump Output: 26 Liters/ Min

Total Number of People Benefiting: 140

Funder: Katherine Murray

52 Pumps in 52 Weeks – Senegal – Project 20 - Saare Dagua, Community Well

Location
Saare Dagua, Kaolack, Senegal

Community Description
The village of Saare Dagua is located within walking distance of Thiawando, only about one kilometer away. Immediately after we installed #11, several prominent members of the village came to see it and started inquiring about getting one of their own. By immediately we mean they came for lunch and tea the same day we finished the install.

Villages in Senegal are tied together very closely often intermarrying and sharing in all sorts of ceremonies and traditions. This means that even if there is only a dirt path between them, news like a new pump travels instantly. By the end of our traditional three rounds of tea together we had promised to come back and take a look at least.

Thiawando has a fairly diverse population of many different ethnicities. Saare Dagua on the other hand is 100% Pulaar. As such they are primarily herders and have a lot of cattle. As Pulaars they also have a very strong joking relationship with Sereres. My Senegalese village and language is Serere so I got plenty of jokes from the elders about how much millet and beans I like to eat (Trust me this joke is very funny here). The joking is always lighthearted as Sereres and Pulaars intermarry and often speak each other’s languages and we quickly put our differences aside and got down to business.

Project Description
This project is to install a pump at the community well in Saare Dagua.

This is a central well which is used by the entire village to water their cattle. There is a nearby basin just far enough from the well that it is not being used, but close enough that with a pump and extended pipe they could fill it easily and more efficiently and regularly provide water for the cattle. The well is the closest clean fresh water source for drinking and washing as well.

Project Impact
All 340 members of the village will benefit from the increased efficiency of pulling water.

Peace Corps Volunteer Directing Project
Garrison Harward and C.J. Pederson

Comments
With the close proximity of this pump to the two in Thiawando and with their close inter-village partnerships this pump will have a great built-in support system to ensure its maintenance and proper use into the future.

Dollar Amount of Project
$100.00

Donations Collected to Date
$100.00

Dollar Amount Needed
$0.00 - This project has now been fully funded through the generosity of Vicki Ringer, of Woodland Hills, CA, USA.

If you now contribute $150 (our new price, which includes labor), your name will be placed on the waiting list to adopt the next project in order.

If you wish to contribute less than $150, the money will be applied toward the overall program.

52 Pumps in 52 Weeks – Senegal – Project 3 - Massarinko

Location
Massarinko, Fatick, Senegal

Community Description
Massarinko is a small agricultural village of 416 people located just north of the Gambia and 9 k west of Karang. This unique community lies at a crossroads of both country and ethnicity and is therefore very diverse.

The majority of people are Mandinkan but there are also sizable Serere and Wolof populations and even a few Pulaar families. This means that on any given day one could hear 6 different languages walking through town (that includes Senegal's national language of French, and English because of us PCVs).

Most of the village's income comes from farming peanuts, millet, and rice, which are both subsistence and cash crops. A secondary source of income which the village is looking to expand is herding cattle.

There is currently a small basin next to the well where most of the village's cattle come to drink. The basin is often completely dry as it is hand filled with water pulled from the well. This means that the cattle often don't have enough to drink.

In Senegal the dry season is hard on everyone, but it is especially difficult for livestock. The main road from Sokone to Kaolack is littered with carcasses of cows and sheep that didn't make it through the hard times.

Project Description
The goal of this project is to install a rope pump on the well to ease the difficulty of filling this basin, while also helping the women of the village to more easily pull water for standard household needs such as cooking, bathing, and washing clothes.

Project Impact
While Massarinko has a total of 6 wells, the majority of the households pull water from this one because it is centrally located right next to the Mosque. As a result about 150 people will benefit from this pump, along with around 40 cattle and many more sheep and goats. In reality though if the pump allows the village to support increased cattle production then the impact will be much greater as everyone will benefit from increased income and nutrition.

Peace Corps Volunteer Directing Project
Garrison Harward & Will Leborgne

Comments
This project brings in a new focus of caring for the animals upon which the villagers depend for their existence.

This week, because of the popularity of this program, we are instituting a “waiting list”. If a project is adopted before you have a chance to contribute your $100, just donate now, and you will get the next one in order.

Dollar Amount of Project
$100.00

Donations Collected to Date
$100.00

Dollar Amount Needed
$0.00 - This project has now been fully funded through the generosity of Leah Gilmore, of San Jose, CA, USA.

If you now contribute $100, your name will be placed on the waiting list to adopt the next project in order.

If you wish to contribute less than $100, the money will be applied toward the overall program. Go to the 52 Pumps in 52 Weeks Program - Senegal page and click on the general Donate button there.

This project has been finished. To read about the conclusion of the project, CLICK HERE.

Conclusion of 52 Pumps in 52 Weeks – Senegal – Project 3 – Massarinko

This project has been completed under the direction of Peace Corps Volunteers Marcie Todd and Garrison Harward. To read about the beginning of the project, CLICK HERE.

Garrison reports:

Murphy’s law states: Anything that can go wrong will go wrong. This week I have been fully convinced that this is true. Rest assured the pump is now working, but we said that we would talk frankly about our problems with this project so let me tell you a story.

The morning started out very smoothly. The local Peace Corps Volunteer Will, his counterpart Lamine, and I all went out to the well to check on the half cap we had cast earlier in the week and it looked great. We tipped it up, washed the sand off the bottom and placed it on the well. So far no problems. Suddenly though one of the village children decided to be helpful and carried the cement and PCV turn around block over to me and dropped it at my feet. It had only been cast a few days earlier and now bore a sizable crack from end to end.

Lesson one for the day: don’t let children touch anything!

This was not a huge issue however, so we duct-taped the block to make sure it wouldn’t crack further and then moved on to the next task. This is where everything went wrong. Firstly we threaded the rope the wrong direction through the PCV pipe so that every connector, instead of allowing the rope to smoothly pass from one piece of pipe to the next, was catching the knots. We had to pull the entire apparatus out of the well, flip the pipe around, and re-glue everything.

Lesson two learned: double-check everything before you glue!

The next problem flabbergasted us for about an hour. The rope kept getting stuck again and again even though everything was now going in the right direction. We pulled everything out of the well a second time and it turned out that this time the problem was too much slack. The extra rope was getting tangled on itself and in this instance a section had actually folded over and gotten stuck in the PCV pipe. A little trimming and a second round of re-gluing and we were ready to drop everything back in the well.

Lesson three learned: too much slack can, and therefore will, cause problems.

With everything doubly fixed we prayed that the pump would just work, but of course it didn’t. The wheel was really hard to turn and the output just wasn’t very good. We discussed and tried to find quick solutions before we finally resigned ourselves to pull the piping and cement block out of the well for a third time. By now we were all exhausted and many of the villagers wanted to wait until the next day to finish, but Will, Lamine and I were determined, if not a little stubborn, to get it working.

This final problem was due to the knots themselves. I had tested their size using a piece of regular PCV pipe, which I realized in this moment, is ever so slightly larger than the higher quality pressure PCV we were using here. The knots were too big and that little bit of extra friction was really adding up over the entire distance of the well. We pulled out the rope and Will and I rushed to his hut to melt and reshape the knots until they were small enough to pass smoothly through the pipe.

Lesson four learned: when checking sizing, use the right sized pipe.

Finally we were at the moment of truth… take 3… We lowered everything down, tied off the ends of the rope, and started to turn the wheel. Water! Yes this time it finally worked.

The village instantly forgot about the hardships of the day and started filling their basins and trying out the pump. They were absolutely thrilled. Even through all the frustration this was actually a very useful day as all of these lessons were really important to learn. It was also an excellent way to teach the village how to repair the pump and the kinds of things that might go wrong. Yes sweet are the uses of adversity, but next time Murphy how ‘bout you lay off a little.

Lesson five learned: persistence and hard work pays off!

Pump Output: 41 Liters/ Min

Total Number of People Benefiting: 150

Funder: Leah Gilmore

52 Pumps in 52 Weeks – Senegal – Project 4 – Samba Thika

Location
Samba Thika, Kolda, Senegal

Community Description
Samba Thika is one in a cluster of 3 small villages. There are less than 100 people living here, about 23 k North of Kolda. The terrain is hilly and serene. Though it lacks vegetation, there is something magical about the village itself. It is somewhat of an oasis in a vast expanse of tall brush, and when you step into the village perimeter you feel at least 5 degrees cooler from the sheer amount of trees the village has planted.

As is the case with most Pulaar villages in Senegal, their primary sources of income are agriculture and raising cows. They grow veggies in the wet season, pick mangoes in the dry season, and raise cows for yogurt and milk all year around.

Half of Samba Thika is one family. The family compound has 46 members most of whom are children. The new Mayor of the village, Samba Balde, is highly motivated and is helping the women of Samba Thika start a community garden, and searching for funds to build a health post in town.

Project Description
The plan for the pump in Samba Thika is slightly different from that of the pumps previously built. First off, the well is square and the walls are narrow, which may prove to be a small issue for the mason. Also, it is interesting in its placement. We have decided to place this pump at an individual’s house and not in a group space. This may seem a bit odd, but this one house makes up more than half of the members of the village, and of the 2 wells in village, this one is the cleanest.

Project Impact
All 98 people in town will benefit from the installation, as they all use the compound’s well for drinking water.

Peace Corps Volunteer Directing Project
Marcie Todd

Comments
This project once again demonstrates the insight and flexibility that the team must exhibit in order to keep this program on schedule, within budget, and successful.

Dollar Amount of Project
$100.00

Donations Collected to Date
$100.00

Dollar Amount Needed
$0.00 - This project has now been fully funded through the generosity of Mara Hunter Redden, of Ojai, CA, USA.

If you now contribute $100, your name will be placed on the waiting list to adopt the next project in order.

If you wish to contribute less than $100, the money will be applied toward the overall program

Conclusion of 52 Pumps in 52 Weeks – Senegal – Project 4 – Samba Thika

This project has been completed under the direction of Peace Corps Volunteers Marcie Todd and Garrison Harward. To read about the beginning of the project, CLICK HERE.

Marcie reports:

The pump installation in Saare Samba Thika was different in many ways. The challenges in weather, the triumphs with the new members of our team, the demographic of well users and even the shape of the well were unlike what we had seen before.

Saare Samba Thika is composed of 98 people and only two wells. Of the two wells in town one has drinkable water and it is located in the largest compound in the village. We usually do not install a pump for an individual compound, but this is a special case. The compound itself has 46 members which composes more than half of the town. The compound and its well are very much a community space. All 98 members of town drink from this well and most come to hang out under the mango tree that sits directly in the center of the compound.

The wells in Samba Thika are square. I thought this might pose a problem for the mason, who is used to working with circular wells, but Sow (the mason) handled it like the professional he is and fashioned a perfectly fitting well cap.

Between the time of making the well cap and the 4-5 days it takes for the cement to dry properly we ran into some roadblocks. Almost instantly Saare Samba Thika’s community pump became slow moving. There were two major reasons: 1. Rainy Season and 2. Training a New Welder.

1. Tobugol [tōb- Ū- gŭl]- to rain.
Though tobugol’s meaning is translated to, to rain; to rain and tobugol are not synonyms. To rain is a complete understatement. It is more like Allah himself is directing hundreds of hands to pump a synchronized symphony of hundreds of wells onto the Koldan land and once the rain has stopped you’re left feeling like the last cheerio in the bowl; soggy and surrounded by liquid.

Rainy season is now upon us! It is clear that we will need to be more prepared, with more materials on hand, and be ready to install as soon as it is sunny out.

2. Introducing Sow.
Sow is our new welder. He is a short and stocky man who wears a winter hat and heavy jacket even on the hottest of days. He owns a small space on the main road into Kolda where he and his team of 9 weld doors, chariots, seeders, motorcycles, and almost any other thing of which you can think.

Sow is a brilliant man who clearly loves his profession. It has only been a week and a half since we started with Sow, but each time I stop by his place he is bursting out of his winter jacket to tell me of a new slight tweak he has made to the pumps to make them better. His most recent invention is a pump for schools designed so that the headmaster can take the handle off during recess.

Though Saare Samba Thika’s pump installation took longer than expected I think we gained some valuable insight and members to the team because of it. In rare instances, I guess it is okay to not be on time.

Pump Output: 36 Liters/ Min

Total Number of People Benefiting: 98

Funder: Mara Hunter Redden

52 Pumps in 52 Weeks – Senegal – Project 5 - Karang

Location
Karang, Fatick, Senegal

Community Description
In 2010, a group of about 20 people, mostly women, formed a gardening group in a small space just outside of Karang right on the Gambian border. The husband of one of the women generously agreed to let them use his land free of charge.

The group took this initial gift and ran with it, creating a beautiful and productive garden full of hot peppers, cabbage, onions, eggplant, bananas, and citrus trees just to name a few. Currently their field is split into 20 individual plots centered around two fairly shallow wells.

Due to the high volume of people around these two wells watering can be both tedious and time consuming.

Project Description
The installation of this pump means that one person will be able to pull water at a faster rate for the entire group. The well has a water basin attached which can hold approximately 5000 L of water, which when full facilitates easy and fast watering for everyone.

Project Impact
The 20 women with individual plots will directly benefit along with their entire families.

Peace Corps Volunteer Directing Project
Garrison Harward, Byron Yee, Will Leborgne , and Cassie Blass

Comments
Insa Senghor, one of the leaders of the group explained their motivation:

“Last year these women wanted to start a garden. None of them had any work, but you can make a lot of money selling vegetables. This pump is good because it makes their work easier and we can water faster. If this pump works well, we already have plans to install it in other fields.”

Dollar Amount of Project
$100.00

Donations Collected to Date
$100.00

Dollar Amount Needed
$0.00 - This project has now been fully funded through the generosity of Cynthia Connolly, of Carpinteria, CA, USA.

If you now contribute $100, your name will be placed on the waiting list to adopt the next project in order.

If you wish to contribute less than $100, the money will be applied toward the overall program

This project has been finished. To read about the conclusion of the project, CLICK HERE.

Conclusion of 52 Pumps in 52 Weeks – Senegal – Project 5 - Karang

This project has been completed under the direction of Peace Corps Volunteers Marcie Todd and Garrison Harward. To read about the beginning of the project, CLICK HERE.

Garrison reports:

Probably the hardest part of this project is the fact that Marcie and I are installing a new pump every week. That might sound pretty obvious as the project is titled 52 Pumps in 52 Weeks, but nevertheless I find myself a little surprised every time it’s my turn again to install a pump. Also, fresh off the trials and tribulations of Massarinko and hearing of Marcie's rainy season and welder woes, I wasn't feeling quite ready at the beginning of this week to tackle yet another installation.

Such is life however and the relentless march of time waits for no one.

Due to other projects and scheduling problems I wasn't able to come to Karang when the group was making the well cap, which added to my nerves, and rightfully so because when I got there it just wasn't quite right. The cap was too thin, and the bolts securing the pump into the cement weren't holding very well. We decided to go ahead with the install anyway though, and see about repairs later.

We started by cleaning off the bottom of the cap, and then lifted the entire half cap and pump onto the well. We installed the piping and the rope and amazingly encountered none of the exasperating problems of the previous pump.

I started to feel a little more confident, which is always a bad sign. The install took all of about 30 min and then we were ready to try the pump. You've probably guessed by now that it didn't work. Well you're right. For some reason the wheel was spinning but it wasn't able to grip the rope, and thus the pump wasn't bringing up water. We fiddled for a while and eventually decided that the knots on the rope were too far apart this time so the wheel didn't have anything to grip except for the slick rope. I told everyone that I would be back in a few days with a new rope so that we could finish the install.

I went back to village that day a little disappointed, and more than a little tired, but determined to do right by the group and get the pump up and working as soon as I could. I bought more rope and tied the knots at a closer distance. In the end this rope turned out to be probably my best yet. The distance was great, the knots were smooth and small, and the whole thing passed easily through my now correctly sized test pipe.

I returned triumphantly a few days later with the new rope only to find my fellow PCV Byron standing in a little pool of water next to the well. I asked him where it had come from and he proceeded to turn the wheel of the pump and spill copious amounts of water everywhere without even the slightest hint of slippage on the wheel or any other mechanical problems. I looked at him and said "Alhamdulillah" (Grace be to god). Sometimes there's nothing else to be said. I've been thinking a lot about this, but I honestly can't say why the rope was slipping a few days ago and now it isn't. For once, chance worked in my favor, though so I'm not complaining. I'll take the win.

The well cap still has a few problems so while we're posting the completion now I will be back to reinforce it with another layer of concrete next week. We're holding off on measuring the output until after this because as is, the pump is really wobbly in the thin cap and we can't get it up to speed to measure the full output. Check back and it will be updated soon.

Pump Output: TBD

Total Number of People Benefiting: 20 (Plus roughly 100 family members)

Funder: Cynthia Connolly

52 Pumps in 52 Weeks – Senegal – Project 6 - Saare Asset

Location
Saare Asset, Kolda, Senegal

Community Description
Asset means Saturday in Pulaar. We asked if the village was created on a Saturday, but only got laughs. Saare Asset is the second pump site in the cluster of small villages surrounding Saare Samba Thika. Saare Asset is slightly larger than the others with a total of 152 community members.

The 68 women of this village work on a 2 hectare community garden where they grow immaculate okra, hibiscus, and hot peppers. They spend the early morning hours watering their garden, come home to cook lunch and then start the watering process all over again.

Saare Asset and Saare Samba Thika are within walking distance from each other and in many ways a part of the same big family. The two villages intermarry, adopt each other’s farming and cow raising techniques and sometimes even have community meetings together. Though they seem similar in many ways the culture of Saare Asset is slightly different.

Saare Asset has a good number of boys who go into Kolda to study during the year, come back to work for summer break and to be with their families for Ramadan. This, among other things, seems to make community motivation slightly stronger.

Project Description
Saare Asset is genius when it comes to using their resources. They have two pulley systems set up that have a bucket attached to each end of the rope. When they are emptying one bucket, simultaneously the second bucket is filling; this cuts the onerous task of pulling water in half. Saare Asset is on the horizon of expanding their garden. They have almost saved enough money to expand their fence an extra hectare and with that in mind the hand pump will help save a lot of time.

Project Impact
The 68 members of the community garden and their families will benefit from the pump.

Peace Corps Volunteer Directing Project
Marcie Todd

Comments
The replication of the process in neighboring villages is valuable for the proliferation of the technology and will lead to sustainability.

Dollar Amount of Project
$100.00

Donations Collected to Date
$100.00

Dollar Amount Needed
$0.00 - This project has now been fully funded through the generosity of Harrison Walls, of Santa Cruz, CA, USA.

If you now contribute $100, your name will be placed on the waiting list to adopt the next project in order.

If you wish to contribute less than $100, the money will be applied toward the overall program.

This project has been finished. To read about the conclusion of the project, CLICK HERE.

Conclusion of 52 Pumps in 52 Weeks – Senegal – Project 6 - Saare Asset

This project has been completed under the direction of Peace Corps Volunteers Marcie Todd and Garrison Harward. To read about the beginning of the project, CLICK HERE.

Marcie reports:

The rope pump in the community garden at Saare Asset was the easiest installation team Kolda has seen yet. We got a free ride out to Asset from Caritas, a Catholic ONG that does work in many Koldan villages, and when we arrived there were already people in the garden ready to help with the install. We mounted the pump, glued the pipes together, threaded the rope through the PVC and had our first round of tea.

Ataya is a super sugary, super concentrated form of tea. Senegalese drink it like a coffee connoisseur would an espresso shot, only instead of one shot once a day, Ataya is 3 shots 3-5 times a day. Ataya is an amazing community bonding agent. There is usually a large group sitting under a tree talking and laughing in the interim between brewing and consumption.

After the first triplet of tea for the day we started lowering the pipe and rope into the well. My stomach was restless and I assumed the installation wouldn¹t work on the first go around. We often have to pull the system out of the well, tweak something small and then reinstall. This time, when we started to turn the crank, it turned smoothly. We saw water splash up and then out of the pipe head flowing strong. The women danced and one even got on top of the well cap! It was perfect timing for success.

Pump Output: 40 Liters/ Min

Total Number of People Benefiting: 68

Funder: Harrison Walls

52 Pumps in 52 Weeks – Senegal – Project 7 - Keur Andallah

Location
Keur Andallah Willane, Fatick, Senegal

Community Description
Keur Andallah is definitely the most remote village I have worked in thus far into our project. This point was driven home full force as I rode my bike, before sunrise, the 24 kilometers from the main road to Saloum Diane and then another 3 kilometers on sand into the bush to get to Keur Andallah.

The remoteness of the village has its benefits though as it is situated right next to a national forest and has a multitude of birds, monkeys, jackals, and other wildlife. This brings in tourism from Toubacouta and also allows the villagers to supplement their nutrition through occasional hunting.

The village itself is beautiful and, as a result of the sheer number of Mango trees, is considerably cooler than the surrounding fields. The main crop here is peanuts along with some millet and corn, but the really unique thing about Keur Andallah is that right outside the village is an amazing riverbed area with several pools of water that last year round, even through the dry season. This allows for intensive gardening activities, which this motivated village takes full advantage of.

In the women’s garden there are no cement wells, because all the women have to do is dig down about 1 meter before they hit water. Everyone just digs little wells close to their plots rather than using a single central well. They grow vegetables in the dry season and when the riverbed gets flooded they switch to rice.

Project Description
While pulling water is not a problem out in the gardens, it is an issue in the village where the three community wells are at least 10 meters deep.

We’ve decided to put a pump on the most central and cleanest well, the one from which most people actually drink. There are often upwards of 15 women standing next to the well waiting to use the one pulley and bucket.

Project Impact
The 200 people who use this well daily as a drinking source will directly benefit along with anyone staying in the Health hut situated just 10 meters away.

Peace Corps Volunteer Directing Project
Garrison Harward and Emily Tran

Comments
This pump will help to speed up the process and lower the risk of contaminants falling into this primary drinking source.

Dollar Amount of Project
$100.00

Donations Collected to Date
$100.00

Dollar Amount Needed
$0.00 - This project has now been fully funded through the generosity of Walter Wilhelm, of Salt Lake City, UT, USA.

If you now contribute $100, your name will be placed on the waiting list to adopt the next project in order.

If you wish to contribute less than $100, the money will be applied toward the overall program.

This project has been finished. To read about the conclusion of the project, CLICK HERE.

Conclusion of 52 Pumps in 52 Weeks – Senegal – Project 7 - Keur Andallah

This project has been completed under the direction of Peace Corps Volunteers Marcie Todd and Garrison Harward. To read about the beginning of the project, CLICK HERE.

Garrison reports:

Keur Andallah is still just as far away as it was during the prep for this install. This morning I was up once again at 6 am and on my bike for 25 k, then we worked all morning and I rode home after lunch. Needless to say I am exhausted. It’s all worth it though when at the end of the day there’s another working pump.

We started this install several weeks ago but had to put things off a bit when I got sick. In early July we cast the well cap and in the process found a new mason who is by far the best team Kaolack has used thus far. He was amazingly quick at picking up our technique for casting the cap without a form, and spent probably an extra half hour making sure that everything was perfectly level and smooth.

After I got back from Dakar we scheduled a day and I came out for the rest of the install. All of my previous mistakes finally paid off! This install went phenomenally smoothly. Well with one exception, but we’ll get to that in a second. We started by threading the rope through the pipe and gluing all the joints. While that was drying we tipped up the well cap, washed it off, and placed it on the well. Next we lowered the pipe into the well and adjusted the length to fit under the cap.

Here’s where we hit a little snag. The block at the bottom was sitting on a little ledge when we thought it was all the way at the bottom of the well. This means that when we trimmed the pipe it was just a little too short. We can still fit the pipe in the connecting fixture but now it has a tendency to want to fall out. We may end up gluing it even though that will make the pump less easily maintained.

In the end everyone was very pleased though. The output is fantastic and because the pump is being used as a water source for animals as well as people, even the men were getting involved with pulling water. There is a slight problem with the bolts in the concrete but that is being re-cemented today and shouldn’t pose a problem in the future.

Pump Output: 37 Liters/ Min

Total Number of People Benefiting: 200

Funder: Walter Wilhelm

52 Pumps in 52 Weeks – Senegal – Project 8 - Hann Maristes Youth Prison, Dakar

Location
Hann Maristes Minor Prison, Dakar, Senegal

Community Description
Northeast of Downtown Dakar in district Hann Maristes is a youth prison. The residents are men approximately aged 13-24. At any given time there are anywhere from 50 to 70 residents occupying the prison for crimes ranging from theft and smoking marijuana to murder. This week there are 56. Their prison sentences, pending the crime, vary from 1 week to 3 years, but typically no longer.

Saliou Faye, the Hann Maristes social worker, says they often have a problem with kids who complete their sentence, but return the next week. I told him the United States and Senegal are more similar than we know.

Many of the kids in prison come from broken homes, have one or more dead parents, or for some reason or another ended up trying to fend for themselves on the streets. The prison provides basic human necessities and even though obtaining a community, stability, and food, in this case, means doing something illegal and giving up freedom, many are willing to do so, be it consciously or unconsciously.

During the day at Hann Maristes Minor Prison, there are literacy classes twice a week, as well as Arabic and Quran classes, chores, and for a select group, gardening.

Cisse, one of the garden guards, explained that literacy classes do not do much good for those who stay less than 2 or 3 months, and what the prisoners really need are skills. This is why Cisse works in the garden. He says, “I am giving back to my community by teaching these kids something they can use when they leave.”

There are usually 6 young men, two security guards, a Tostan field employee, and a Peace Corps Volunteer, David Vaughan, who maintain the garden. The 6 young men are longer term residents of Hann Maristes whose offenses, from what I gather, as a few did not want to talk about it, are mostly minor theft to fighting. They are very excited about the garden, work really hard, and understandably spend as much time as possible tending to it.

Project Description
There is a garden attached to the prison designed to provide supplemental foods for the kitchen, teach a group of long term prison residents a skill and most importantly, give them something to do. The garden is still a new endeavor, but despite its immaturity and lack of reasonably accessible water (until recently, when a well was dug), they have onions, moringa oleifera, eggplant, and baby mango trees starting to grow.

Tostan financed the well and a water storage basin, which makes this location perfectly set up for a pump. As a group of Tostan, Peace Corps, Guards, and the regular young men that tend to the garden, we will install the pump and do an in-depth training on exactly how each part works. This will help ensure the longevity of the pump as well as the health of the veggies they produce.

Project Impact
About 60 individuals, depending on the week, will benefit from the project.

Peace Corps Volunteer Directing Project
Marcie Todd and David Vaughan, Marie Nazon (a Fulbright Scholar working for Tostan)

Comments
Marcie further explains:

This one I think is one of the more important pumps we've done, which is shocking because it is in the capitol city of Dakar. It is really just incredible how excited the guys were to put the pump together and really learn how it works. They asked so many questions, we hung out, drank coffee, and talked a lot about where they see themselves going in the future.

Dollar Amount of Project
$100.00

Donations Collected to Date
$100.00

Dollar Amount Needed
$0.00 - This project has now been fully funded through the generosity of Stephanie Williamson, of Salt Lake City, UT, USA.

If you now contribute $100, your name will be placed on the waiting list to adopt the next project in order.

If you wish to contribute less than $100, the money will be applied toward the overall program.

This project has been finished. To read about the conclusion of the project, CLICK HERE.

Conclusion of 52 Pumps in 52 Weeks – Senegal – Project 8 - Hann Maristes

This project has been completed under the direction of Peace Corps Volunteers Marcie Todd and Garrison Harward. To read about the beginning of the project, CLICK HERE.

Marcie reports:

The early morning before arriving at Hann Maristes Prison I was a little nervous that maybe I had forgotten something essential from Kolda. The trip from Kolda to Dakar is 14 hours in the best of situations and missing one important thing could cause a series of mishaps. I checked my luggage two or three times to make sure I had it all and then went out to look for a taxi. It is always a risk to get into a taxi when you are unsure where you are going, but I was lucky to find a driver who knew the exact location.

Upon arrival to the prison for the first time I was greeted by the Tostan Fulbright Scholar, Marie who contacted us about putting in a pump, and Cisse, the guard. They promptly went on a search to find a mason to mold the well cap and by 4:30 pm the cap was beautifully done.

5 days passed, the cement had set and it was now time to do the installation. This time when I arrived the 6 boys who regularly work in the garden were there, along with Cisse and the social worker Saliou. The boys were very interested in the work that was ahead of us. They wanted to be involved in every step of the process and do all of the work. They were so passionate, willing to learn, and problem solve.

We started by lighting a fire and melting the PVC a bit in order to create joints where one pipe could fit snuggly into the other. We threaded the rope and then glued the PVC together and added the block on the bottom whose job is to stabilize the PVC. Then we waited for the glue to dry.

In the past we've tried to lower the pipe before the glue had dried and everything comes undone. We have to pull the system out, re-glue, and then wait even longer. Patience is key to doing pump installations.

After waiting for the glue to dry we noticed a huge crack in the PVC that sits in the block at the bottom of the well. This would pose a huge problem, as the rope would get stuck in the pipe and therefore prevent the pump from working. We promptly broke the bike open to salvage the pieces inside and casted a new bottom brick. We had to wait another three days for the brick to set before finishing installation.

3 days passed and we decided to start the day with a small coffee party. David Vaughan, the Peace Corps Volunteer that works at the prison, Cissee, the 6 young men and I watered the garden, then relaxed under the tree while waiting for coffee to brew. Around noon we rounded up the group and put the pipe in the well. After knotting the rope we gave it a test. It was a little bit tough at first but after the knots settled into place it became simple to turn and had a really nice flow. The boys were really excited and washed their smiling faces in the water flow.

The pump installation in the Hann Maristes Prison was completed in conjunction with Tostan. Here is a bit from them:

Since 1991, Tostan, (means “breakthrough” in Wolof) based in Dakar, Senegal, has implemented its Community Empowerment Program (CEP) – a holistic, human rights-based, non-formal education curriculum – to thousands of communities in ten African countries: Burkina Faso, Djibouti, The Gambia, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Mauritania, Senegal, Somalia, and Sudan.

The goal of the Prison Project is to improve the lives of prisoners in Senegal in five major prisons in Thies, Dakar and Rufisque. The project aims to strengthen prisoners’ capacities and self-esteem, and to train them in income-generating skills so that they can positively reintegrate into their families and communities and permanently sustain a new way of living after having served their sentences. Women and youth in prisons are the main focus, as women and youth are often the poorest, least empowered, and most vulnerable members of society.

The Hann youth prison is the most recent program of the Tostan Prison project, initiated in January 2011. Tostan staff lead classes in social empowerment and basic literacy modules conducted in Wolof. Tostan also provide prison participants training in microcredit and small project managements and actively facilitate the prisoners’ reintegration in their families and community.

‘In keeping with the tenets of human rights to basic health and hygiene, the construction of the well in the prison to provide a very much needed additional source of portable water was a given’ said Ms. Nazon. The construction of the well was generously funded by private donors, Francine Pearlman-Storch and former U.S. Ambassador to Senegal, Marcia Bernicat.

Pump Output: 40 Liters/ Min

Total Number of People Benefiting: 60-100 people, depending on the week

Funder: Stephanie Williamson

52 Pumps in 52 Weeks – Senegal – Project 9 – Thies, Peace Corps Training Center

Location
Thies, Senegal

Community Description
As we've said before, this project isn't just about installing 52 pumps. That's only the beginning. The real benefits will come from the knowledge we gain, the technicians we train, and the infrastructure for pump production that we establish as a result of this initial run.

In keeping with that vision this week's community is a little different from our usual demographic. Welcome to the Peace Corps Training Center located in the regional capital of Thies. This beautiful complex of old colonial buildings and gardens was our first home here in Senegal when we arrived as wide-eyed trainees. Every volunteer spends their first 9 weeks here and in surrounding villages learning local languages, receiving technical training, and learning the cultural skills they will need to be effective volunteers in the field.

This is also the site of In Service Training where volunteers further specialize their technical skills and learn about appropriate technologies, such as rope pumps. This center isn't just for volunteers though; it serves as a resource for the Senegalese people throughout the year through Master Farmer trainings, and Counterpart Workshops where volunteers and Senegalese partners from each village learn how to best collaborate during their two years of service.

Finally this center also holds international conferences where volunteers from other Peace Corps countries come to share best practices and collaborate on large international projects such as the new initiative to stomp out Malaria in Africa. It is truly an asset to Senegal and Peace Corps West Africa as a whole.

Project Description
In order to better support the training of Senegalese counterparts and PCVs in rope pump technology we will install a demonstration pump at the Training Center.

This unit will be mounted on an oil barrel rather than a well so that the entire rig will be portable and able to be taken to different sites to demonstrate the technology and teach welders how to construct the pump.

There is only so much that can be learned from looking at diagrams. With a functioning demo model it will be possible to establish new producers in more remote areas away from the Kolda and Kaolack regions where we currently work.

Project Impact
New trainees, current Senegal volunteers at trainings, volunteers from other Peace Corps countries at conferences, and local farmers and welders will all benefit from this pump. All told, between 100-200 people a year will directly benefit.

Peace Corps Volunteer Directing Project
Garrison Harward

Comments
This training pump will facilitate the proliferation of this great technology, and will have a profound impact.

Dollar Amount of Project
$100.00

Donations Collected to Date
$100.00

Dollar Amount Needed
$0.00 - This project has now been fully funded through the generosity of Christina Fernandez, of San Francisco, California, USA.

If you now contribute $100, your name will be placed on the waiting list to adopt the next project in order.

If you wish to contribute less than $100, the money will be applied toward the overall program.

This project has been finished. To read about the conclusion of the project, CLICK HERE.

Conclusion of 52 Pumps in 52 Weeks – Senegal – Project 9 – Thies, Peace Corps Training Center

This project has been completed under the direction of Peace Corps Volunteers Marcie Todd and Garrison Harward. To read about the beginning of the project, CLICK HERE.

Garrison reports:

While I was very excited to put together this pump for the Training Center this week, I was not too excited about the time frame in which I had to complete the project. I arrived in Thies with just a day and a half to put the whole thing together before a scheduled demo for the Health and Environmental Education volunteers at their In Service Training. After sitting in the medical unit in Dakar for 6 days this sudden shift was a little jarring. Then again I enjoy being busy so it was nice to get back to work.

I started my day in the Thies market where I was lucky enough to find a beautiful new oil drum within about half an hour. Most of the time the ones available for purchase are old and dented but this one was shiny and new. So new in fact that it was still extremely greasy. I cleaned it out and brought it next door to a local welding shop where we welded four metal plates to the top and then bolted on the pump. After this we cut a small hole in the middle of the barrel and attached a PVC pipe to recycle the output back into the system: this way we wouldn't have to constantly refill the barrel. After this the install went pretty much like any other pump. The system is exactly the same, just on a very miniature scale.

On the demonstration day volunteers broke up into groups and went to different stations where they learned about various appropriate technologies such as improved stoves, nutritional supplements, and yes of course rope pumps. Every group seemed genuinely interested as they tried it out, asked questions, and even inquired as to how they could get a pump for their village.

The real indicator of success however in my opinion was the fact that after all the volunteers were gone about 6 Senegalese staff members came up to look at the pump and see how it works. One of the drivers said he was going to bring his son to see it, three women from the kitchen wouldn't stop saying good work no matter how much I tried to stop them and one man who comes by to trim the trees asked where he can buy one. Half the battle of improving living conditions here is just finding a way to motivate people to try something new. This pump inspires people and gives them hope that they really can better their lives.

Pump Output: 35 Liters/ Min

Total Number of People Benefiting: 100-200 per year

Funder: Christina and Jim Fernandez