Sanitation Project in Sierra Leone

Dear Family and Friends,

I have served on the board of OneVillage Partners for the past 3 years and Randi and I have had the opportunity to visit program sites in Sierra Leone. The need for sanitation facilities in the villages is an essential ingredient for improved health for the people. It is something that we take for granted in the US. I invite you to join in this effort to improve the lives of children and adults in the village of Guoma. Thank you. Michael

Welcome to Gouma! Gouma is OneVillage Partners' newest partner community, located near OVP's regional hub in Daru in eastern Sierra Leone and with a population of approx. 850 people.

Recently, Gouma started their first project in the Community Action program. In this program, 12 volunteer-leaders from Gouma are participating in trainings facilitated by OVP staff to identify and address their community's most pressing challenges. Just last week, the volunteer-leaders led their entire community in a vote and identified the lack of accessible and clean sanitation facilities, which leads to open defecation and poor health, as their first development priority.

Here, a Gouma resident casts her vote for the challenge of open defecation and poor health as a result of lack of sanitation facilities as the community's first development priority. 

In Sierra Leone, 17% of the population still practices open defection, leading to a multitude of health issues. More than 80% of deaths of children under the age of 5 have sanitation-related causes. At OneVillage Partners, our community partners often select to address this challenge as one of their first projects, highlighting the prevalent challenge and the opportunity to address it. In communities that implement WASH-related projects, just like the project that Gouma is starting to implement, we see a 73% reduction in diarrheal disease after the the project is completed.

The volunteer-leaders are currently developing a project plan to construct latrines and hand washing stations for everyone in their community. It is their hope that by increasing access to sanitation facilities, community members will see a reduction in diarrheal diseases and an overall improvement in health, especially amongst the children in the community.

Gouma's latrine project will cost $20,000, and our goal is to raise the funds to support Gouma's opportunity to improve community health. Make a donation to OVP during Give MN's Spring Forward Campaign from May 1-11 to support Gouma's latrine project!

A group of OneVillage Partners friends have generously offered to match 100% of donations, up to $5,500. If we unlock the full match, we'll have raised half the funds for Gouma's project! 

Be sure to check the campaign page and our social media platforms throughout the week for updates!