Work Work Work

So if anyone's interested in what I've been doing the past few weeks, click here:

http://pcsenegal.org/malaria/velingara.html

There you have it. We've only distributed to a tiny, tiny percentage of the district of Velingara, so there's plenty of long, frustrating days of work left to do. When I think about the work, I'm less than excited for the weeks to come. What I am excited about, though, is the prospect of malaria being reduced in Velingara, a region that is very near and dear to my heart. So there it is. I'm a slave to mosquito net distributions but I'm happy to be a part of something this big and potentially life changing. Peace!

Appropriate Projects

Now here's an approach to development that works! I recently learned about this non-profit called Appropriate Projects. Here's an excerpt from their website:

Appropriate Projects is an initiative of Water Charity, conceived to slash through the red tape and get projects done immediately.

Access to safe water is a human right, and we are fighting to achieve this goal for every person on this planet. We will not sit around while people are dying and suffering from illness due to lack of water, contaminated water, and unsanitary conditions.

We use appropriate technology, meaning that the simplest and least-expensive methods are utilized to bring about the biggest impact at the least cost.

We do not deal with studies, reports, evaluations, nitpicking, reviews, administration, overhead, talk, delays, processes, procedures, format, overseeing, micro-directing, or excuses.

We start with the understanding that there are about 8,000 Peace Corps Volunteers stationed in over 74 countries around the globe. Each Volunteer is living in a city or community making a great contribution toward world peace.

Each Volunteer is competent and dedicated, having gone through a rigorous selection process, and having trained for the tasks to be done.

Each Volunteer has identified crucial projects that will affect the lives of those around him, but remain undone due to lack of funds.

Each Volunteer has the skills and capacity to manage the projects and funds, and complete the projects on time and within budget.

The projects submitted to Appropriate Projects by Volunteers are small, but they indeed have a big impact.

At the same time, there are millions of individuals around the globe who would like to do the right thing, to help those in need, and to make the world a better place to live.

Your contribution will bring to being a needed project in a distant place. It will affect the lives of individuals and communities, by letting them have the necessities of life.

I just want to go ahead and say that I like the way this organization works. I've been working in "international development" here in Senegal for almost 2 years now, and I've done my fair share of work with national and international government organizations (ie USAID, UNICEF) as well as non-governmental organizations (ie World Vision), and no matter what organization I work with, I always find something to critique. Some programs work fairly well, and I only see a few minor things I would change if I could. Other programs make me loose my faith in the possibility of international development. Appropriate Projects, however, seems pretty ideal to me.

I've been pretty bad at keeping this blog updated recently, and that's mostly because I've been so busy with work here lately. To make a long story short, I've been working the past several months on writing a proposal and organizing the community to build 2 "real" classrooms for the primary school in my village (the current ones are made out of millet stalks- not an ideal situation). It's taken a lot of persistence and patience, but my proposal finally got approved by The Powers That Be, and construction should start within the next 2 weeks. Thanks to my relentless persistent harassing of the good people at World Vision Senegal, they finally caved in and built latrines for the school.

The World Vision people, however, drew the line at latrines. There's a nice hand washing station in the nice World Vision latrines, but, guess what, NO WATER. No well = no water. Not their problem. Whatever, I am just thankful for their help with the latrines.

I'm at the end of my service here, so I don' t really have the time to write another grant and go through that whole song and dance again to get a well for the school. I'd originally just given up on the idea (hey, at least they're getting a school!) and thought that maybe my future replacement might (hint hint) want to do a well construction project. But then...I found out about Appropriate Projects and learned that the well idea could definitely become a reality for my village in the little time I have left there.

Today, I submitted the proposal for the school well to Appropriate Projects. My humble request to you all is that you go to to the website and learn more about this innovative organization. I believe in the work that they are doing and give them my stamp of approval as an organization that one can give money to without worrying about their money getting lost somewhere in the abyss of the international development machine. And, of course, helping people achieve access to sanitary water is a cause to get behind.

Barring any major faults on my part, my proposal should be up on the website in a few days. You can donate directly to my project (the total for the entire well for the school is $500) from here: Check it out, give some money, everybody wins. Please and thank you!

Happy Holidays!

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http://www.merrynewsinator.com/5lo