€20k transforms the lives of 2,000 people in Sierra Leone

A small indigenous NGO in Sierra Leone, Foundation for Integrated Development (FID/ SL), came strongly referenced and recommended to ElectricAid by two respected independent funders. It concentrates on integrated rural development in this desperately-poor and wartorn country – one of the five poorest countries in the world.

Its approach to us was for very basic needs – clean water from hand-pump wells, basic hygiene from communal pit latrines, training for pump technicians and education in basic hygiene for the community at large.

This is not rocket science – but saves lives through the reduction in waterborne diseases such as dysentery, cholera and diarrhoea. It also allows people develop themselves, particularly women and children who now have more time for productive work and schooling – they were often spending two to four hours per day fetching dirty water from contaminated sources such as old diamond pits and swamps.

ElectricAid has part-funded two very successful schemes for FID/SL in Kulaka, Gajibaoma and Liange communities in the Galinas Perri Chiefdom. The rates of water-transmitted diseases - and of deaths - have been cut dramatically. The communities have been mobilised to manage and maintain the wells and latrines and to do regular communal clean-ups of their environment.

FID/SI's report on our second funding says, "Four months of ElectricAid support can be described as very successful. This project has reduced the high rate of waterborne disease prevalence in the project area according to data from the Peripheral Health Unit, increased community participation in development work and practice of good hygiene activities. Local community resources, including labour, were effectively used, with sand and other local materials always produced by the beneficiaries.

Four members of the communities were given pump maintenance and management training and further environmental health education was given to the rest of the population."

ElectricAid's total commitment to the two projects was €20,160. The lives of more than 2,000 people have been transformed – and some saved. Can you imagine better value for your generously donated money?