Cholera is running rampant in Africa!  In January 2016,  over 42,000 people got it and 550 died in Uganda, Ethiopia,  and six other countries.   THERE IS A SIMPLE, INEXPENSIVE SOLUTION, but the NGO's don't want to listen.   So, I am turning to social media.

I just returned from delivering and training people on a water filter (see www.healingwaters.org) and started the world's first international pilot of the "LadderLoo."    It was a phenomenal success.    The people who used it were being trained in safe WASH.  After a week, we emptied it with unanimous agreement that it didn't attract flies, had no odor, didn't allow mosquitoes to breed as occurs in pit latrines, and was not disgusting.    Several said they planned to replace their pit latrine with one of these. 

In the picture you are looking down into a toilet that cost $9 to make.   There is some toilet paper showing through, but you are mostly seeing rice hulls which contain the odor and shield flies.    You are seeing dirt on the edges and lid because I didn't think to use a sparkling clean bucket.  

We are looking for organizations around the world to test the LadderLoo.  For more information and a way to contact me   go to www.engineeringforhope.org

Engineering for Hope

www.engineeringforhope.org

It is May, 2015.   I have been grounded a while while my wife recovers from a difficult surgery; she is doing well now.   I have gotten involved with a ministry called Healing Waters International.  What I really like is their business approach.  The water is sold to the community at heavily discounted rates but enough to sustain three employees and make a small profit to the ministry.    They have developed fabulous high volume water treatment designs utilizing ultrafilters.  You can learn more at their website.    We are currently assembling and delivering 24  filters that will serve thousands each to Uganda & Rwanda.  

August, 2015:  Also, I am also working with Engineering for Hope to develop a concept we are calling the LadderLoo.   It costs as little as $5 to build and yet it is superior in many ways to a toilet which creates sewage that often is not treated.   A World Bank article indicates that sanitation projects fail to sustain because the poorest of people simply do not have the resources to construct a latrine, but we intend to change that with a latrine that impoverished can rent for as little as 25 cents per week.  Plot testing has shown it to be odor free and kills all pathogens in spite of its low cost.   To reduce training costs, we are developing videos so anyone or any NGO , anywhere in the world can view to roll out this concept as a business if they wish.  Our goal, though, is female  microbusinesses driving this in their communities.  More to come.

Ethiopia:   An emerging economy  October, 2013

Bajaj's are replacing horse-drawn taxis

   I was delighted to return to Ethiopia to teach sanitation promotion and construction.   This time we were teaching in Hawassa, in the Great Rift Valley about 270 km south of the capital city of Addis Ababa.   It was so good to see large buildings under construction, active commerce and concrete roads.  In the evenings, we visited some new resorts along the shore of Lake Awasa and had some great meals.

Many of our students were from the Oromia region that may very well be the most primitive part of the country.   All were well educated and were either government  employees, teachers, school masters, or Mekane Yesus (Place of Jesus) church employees. About five were Muslim and the rest Christian.  Another team was teaching  a different Lifewater curriculum to a group of students about as large as ours. 

San-Plats are placed over larger slabs of available material

We elected to teach  "San-Plats" (sanitary platforms) rather than full slabs, because we were getting feedback that the Oromia region is too poor for families to afford to build a full slab.      Most published material for San-Plats indicates that rebar is not needed. My experience is that it is not true, so I advocate use of a small piece of rebar to avoid breakage.   Also, use of banana leaves rather than oiling the sides of the forms reduces cost.    We calculated that we built them for about $8 each.

Notice the prominent mound 

For our teachback, we went to a location in the mountains south of the city.   Our students constructed a complete latrine while we watched.  They placed the San-Plat on a larger slab of wood that the locals were certain would not be attacked by termites. One of the most common mistakes in constructing a latrine is to omit the mound.    By elevating the latrine above ground level, you reduce the chances of flood water from filling the latrine which allows the contents to overflow onto the surrounding area and spread disease. By keeping the ground near the slab dry, the mound also helps to the pit lining's role of preventing the pit from collapsing. 

I think another "God thing" happened on this trip, but all of us will have to wait for the next trip or two to see if it was.  

School Latrines & difficult issues in Tanzania May, 2013

   Isaiah 6:8 says:  Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?"  And I said, "Here am I.  Send me. "   I continue to ask God to use me in ways that I did not expect.  He must like that prayer because He continues to answer it as He did with this trip.   It started in an unusual manner.   Someone obtained my contact information through the retired director of Lifewater International.    The goal was to teach sanitation to a secular, for-profit NGO based in Mwasa. That NGO would then construct school latrines with money from Europe.    Although uncomfortable with a number of issues, I agreed to go in view of potential impact.

Then it got even more uncomfortable.   The person who arranged the trip called me to say that his wife had just been diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease, so he could no longer go.   After a lot of thought and prayer, I decided to continue with the project.    Another person with no prior WASH training had already agreed to go and had been fund raising.   I contacted a secular organization called IHSAN (see the link -- they are reinventing themselves to be known as "Sanitation for All") to see if they would be willing to sponsor the trip.  They not only  agreed but also asked if they could have someone from their organization participate in the trip.  What an amazing addition he was! He had an engineering degree from one of the top schools in India and a masters degree from a school in the USA.   Further,  he had personal experience with a poor WASH environment and a great heart for helping the poor while on vacation from his paying job.

Teaching "disease paths" module with "participatory training"

WASH in Schools - Zambia 2013

WASH in schools is probably Lifewater's best curriculum, because  (repeating one of my first entries) it epitomizes the saying "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day;  show him how to catch fish, and you feed him for a lifetime."   In it we provide school teachers with a curriculum and training to teach WASH to children who will teach their siblings, parents and eventually their own children.    I was the team leader (having been to Ndola three times before) and three wonderful ladies did most of the teaching.
 We were scheduled to leave on Feb 8th, but winter storm Nemo was expected to be right over New York about the time we were supposed to change planes there.   Seeing the weather warnings, I called the travel agent who booked all but a couple of my trips -- Laurie at www.shupingtravel.com.  She bailed me and others out in the past and did it again.   She apparently called in some favors, because we were able to reschedule to the exact same schedule one week later as the team requested.

 We arrived in Ndola somewhat drained but in good spirits.  Once again our partner was Seeds of Hope International Partnerships (SoHIP).   We were a little concerned to learn that there would be just four students. Our primary contact was Gladys who had been one of our star students in 2009.   She promised to take care of it and started making phone calls.  We found ourselves visiting head masters of schools in the area.   They welcomed us and heaped praise on SoHIP.  One mentioned that SoHIP had constructed a school latrine that was instrumental in keeping the school open.   Each child wanted a handshake!

We started class the next day with 17 students including teachers, two assistant head masters, and one head master.  All but one participating  school was public.   The other, where families could not pay for school clothes, was supported by a church in Boise Idaho.  The children all seemed to know the importance of an education.   If they didn't go to school, they wouldn't learn to speak English.   If they didn't learn English, they couldn't get a job and would be caught in the vicious cycle of poverty.  Our students were so full of fun and yet so aware of their importance to the children of Zambia.   One teaching technique is to make a song that teaches.   They came up with some great songs on short notice, but the "Latrine Dance" was unforgettable! 

"Teachbacks" are often the best part of our trainings, because they reinforce the lessons. Visiting each school to watch a teacher employ the lessons was particularly enjoyable. The children were very well behaved in spite class sizes of up to 80 and very spartan conditions.

 One of our group goes by the nickname of Sky.   She founded Bridging the Gap (see the link) which raises funds for WASH programs.   She took us to two AIDS orphanages before we returned home.      One AIDS orphanage was  run by Seeds of Hope (not to be confused with SoHIP -- see link ).     It 's beginnings were as a hospice, but the founders found that children were starting to survive and needed a place to live. They are doing wonderful things for the kids with dorm rooms, classrooms, and a dining hall.  We were introduced to a child who was not going to survive and heard his story:    The hospital was so crowded with children with AIDS they were sharing beds and in this child's case -- laying on a piece of plastic on the floor.  He had a haunting sadness in his eyes but tried to smile for us.    Sky took us to another orphanage where AIDS widows were given jobs making attractive purses and other useful items.   As they sang to us, we learned that AIDS widows are usually destitute with little recourse.  It reminded me of a must read best selling book I read on the way home from Uganda:  "Kisses from Katie."   What an amazing young woman.   I wish I had her courage.  

2012 friends in Uganda

It is a special pleasure to go back to a place where you have taught and see the progress that has occurred.   On this trip,  no Ugandan army troops were needed to keep the LRA away and the refugee camps were gone.  The city of Lira was like a beehive of activity and growth with many people actually smiling.    Another special aspect of a return visit is to see friends from the last trip and make new friends.   What a joy!  We were there to teach Lifewater's partner about sanitation, because they had a contract deadline of just a few months to get the surrounding sub-district to be the first in Uganda to become open defecation free.   What a challenge!   

A local WASH representative walks to her home after class.

Often I am the oldest volunteer on these trips, but this was my first time to be the youngest. All three ladies were so joyful.  
We taught at the same location where pump repair had been our subject almost 6 years earlier.  The partners top leaders attended the class.  The director is amazing.  He also is the senior pastor of a very large congregation that is constructing a new church and he is also a boarding school adviser where his wife is head mistress.   When does he sleep?
 After 2 days of class, SURPRISE.   There would be no class the next day.  It was "Jubilee" -- the 50th anniversary of Uganda's independence.  We hastily arranged to visit a game park.  We arrived late that evening.  The hotel had a full buffet waiting for us. 

We picked up our guide in our crew cab pickup at daybreak.   It was an hour before we saw another vehicle.  Our guide took us down a road where we saw an elephant with the Nile river in the background.   We got too close because the elephant turned and flared his ears.  The guide yelled "go back!" The pickup sped backwards at probably 25 mph  We didn't see their big cats, but Murchison Falls is the most enjoyable game park I have visited.
  We made up the class day on Saturday.   Most of the lessons involved proper latrine construction and alternatives.   A lesson on how to implement the project was probably the most useful because they accomplished their goal after we left. 

   We built a circular cement slab which has distinct advantages over square slabs like less rebar, less cutting, easier to move, and fits a circular hole which is more stable.   We also built a  bamboo slab and a sanplat (sanitary platform) to cover it.   We weren't surprised to see termites had attacked the bamboo slab by the next morning.   Wood or bamboo slabs are not safe because people can fall in.  However, I explained that in Indonesia that the Dutch colonists solved that problem.   Bury the bamboo in wet mud for a month and the cellulose that attracts termites will be gone.  18th century buildings using dried bamboo as rebar are still standing. This is important to note because people just don't want to spend money on a latrine.  Wood slabs are unsafe with termites unless cellulose is removed.
   I got terribly sick on the last day of class.  I should have realized that a full buffet at 10 PM in an off- the- beaten-path hotel was probably not safe.   The local doctor gave me about 3 days of antibiotic, so a US medical clinic was the first place to visit on the return home.   When we left the students were quite sad  with one having tears streaming down his face.  Sanitation training isn't recognized by local people as life saving, but  I pray God will grant me 10 more years of this gratifying work.