Location
Bane, Kaolack, Senegal
Community Description
Bane is a small village located 20 kilometers west of Kaolack, Senegal near the bank of the Saloum River. The population is about one hundred fifty people during the dry season, but grows to three hundred in the rainy season for farming and harvest.
Bane’s people make their living through subsistence farming and animal husbandry, relying on their annual harvest of millet, peanuts and corn for most of their food for the year. The village lacks electricity and running water, thus local women rely on numerous trips to nearby wells for cooking, laundry and bathing needs.
Bane also lacks latrines, forcing villagers to relieve themselves in the nearby forest, or more often, behind the fences of their compounds. This creates an environment with a high risk of giardia, amoebic dysentery, amoebic cysts, and cholera outbreaks
Project Description
This project is to build eighteen simple pit latrines in compounds throughout the village.
Each latrine will be constructed by digging a two-meter pit and placing a reinforced cement platform on top of it. The platform can be lifted and moved to another pit once the first is filled, so families can continue using the same platform for ten or more years.
Project funding will be used to buy cement, iron, and PVC pipe for ventilation. Each family will provide all labor to construct its own latrine, as well as rocks to mix with the cement to build the platform.
Local masons will help oversee construction and give instruction to ensure the quality of the latrines, and proper latrine use (including hand-washing) will be taught upon completion of the project.
Project Impact
This project will benefit 300 people by giving them access to sanitation facilities.
Peace Corps Volunteer Directing Project
Natalie Schmidt
Comments
This is a simple solution to a serious sanitation problem in the community. It is well planned and realistic in its goals and expectations. Education and sustainability are built in to ensure that there will be a long-lasting impact in the community.
Dollar Amount of Project
$500.00
Donations Collected to Date
$500.00
Dollar Amount Needed
$0.00 – This project has now been fully funded, through the generosity of The Soneva SLOW LIFE Trust as a part of their Clean Water Projects initiative.
We encourage others to continue to donate using the Donate button below, and we will notify Peace Corps Volunteer Natalie Schmidt of your donation. Additional funds will be used to fund the next project by Natalie and/or those of her counterpart PCVs in the Senegal.
This project has been finished. To read about the conclusion of the project, CLICK HERE.