Challenges and Benefits of Community Projects

I have provided the tables in the close of service report (COS) I gave to the new volunteer for each project and the follow up work that needs to be done. I also highlight the challenges I have faced for each project. I am currently working on a portfolio as a chronicle of the work I have done in the Peace Corps.This is an ongoing project during my last year in Senegal. Ideally, I want to have this done before returning to Boston.

Health Projects

I am the first female health volunteer to serve in Dassalami Soce. The village did not have Peace Corps volunteers since 5 years ago. Peace Corps did not have their contact information; therefore I did not have a list of people to reach out to begin work.

I talk at length of all these projects in my blog at http://www.venchelepeacecorpshealth.blogspot.com.  I will also provide you with a copy of the baseline survey report I wrote at the community level. This survey was required to be done by all the Health volunteers.  It also served as a proof document for the validity of these projects.

Dassalami did not have previous experience working with PCVs, especially with a female volunteer. Although Dassalami Soce was my community but the projects benefited the two communities nearby, Saroudia and Boutilimite. Therefore, my objective during my service was to educate people on how to work with female pcvs, and show by example and networking our roles as health volunteers. This laid the foundation for the current projects that I have established with them in the community.

1. Poste de Sante Construction

The most important accomplishments during my two years of service include the construction of a new and fully equipped hospital. I networked with this European NGO named Pharmaciens Sans Frontieres based in Luxembourg. I met the coordinator of the NGO, Ben Ndiaye during a conference at Djinack Bara where the NGO started their projects. They do not have an office yet in Dakar. Before I had the meeting with them, they were only intervening in the Saloum Islands.

Therefore, the organization lacked visibility in the Fatick region, one of the many points I used to make a compelling argument on the reasons why they should intervene in Dassalami Soce. The cost of the poste de santé amounted to about 6 million Euros. This new facility is serving more than 1240 habitants in more than three communities. After several meetings combined with my observations on the needs of the community, the former health hut was not addressing adequately the needs of the people. It was too small and women were given birth in unsanitary conditions. It was not accommodating the growing size of the population.

Because I included my community in their project plan, Dassalami Soce will benefit for years to come from the partnership. The community is also going to receive a maternity ward and solar panels in the near future. They are also endorsed for two years of medication to supplement the medicine stock of the poste de santé. The NGO takes in charge the training of two matrones and ASC chosen by the community. Those people have been already chosen by the community and will go through training in the next few months. The names are: Awa Gueye, Matrone; Alimatou Ba, Matrone; El Hadji Watara, ASC.

The ASC, Allassane Ndiaye, your community counterpart will be receiving training to become an ICP (Doctor). I have worked with Alassane and the coordinator of Pharmaciens Sans Frontieres Ben Ndiaye who became my unofficial counterpart. This project was initiated to bridge the socioeconomic gap between those who had access to healthcare services and those who did not.

Benefits	Challenges	Follow-Up Work Suggestions
1.  Access to a wider range of health services 2.  Opportunity to introduce new health programs 3.  Pregnant women are able to give birth under sanitary conditions 4.  Facility is adequate according to the size of the population 5.  Continued health projects with Pharmaciens Sans Frontieres 6.  Bridges the socioeconomic gap of those who have access to health services from those who do not 7.  Meeting place to hold health trainings	1.  We are waiting for the inauguration of the new Poste de Sante in the coming year 2.  Painting is underway due to lack of paint materials in the boutique 3.  Bringing electricity to the Poste de Sante for medicines (it might take 2 yrs to receive solar panels) 4.  Maintenance of the Poste de Sante (choosing people in the community who are willing to clean it everyday at a reduced cost)  5.  Medical equipment is still in the pilot village Djinack Bara. The NGO partner has to come and disperse the materials to all the villages included in the project plan	1.  Evaluation of the medicine stock with community counterpart Alassane Ndiaye 2.  Reinforce the home visits (visite a domicile: VADs) and cooking demonstration  activities with the care group volunteers and ASC 3.  Fundraise the money to keep the Poste de Sante clean (set up a method to pay the cleaning women) 4.  Holding health talks, home visits or tournees on women’s empowerment, gender violence, and HIV/AIDs. Awa Traore in the Thies Training Center has been working with PCVs on these trainings. 5.  Set up an enclosure for the new poste de santé to make it more secure and keep animals from grazing near the poste de santé 6.  Promote the importance of ensuring that the stock of medicine never runs out. 7.  Design Health murals 8.  Help the Poste de Sante gain more visibility in the region 9.  Holding Health trainings 10.    Expanding the health topics to use during the home visits 11.    holding Health sessions in the French Elementary School of Dassalami Soce 12.    Monitoring & Evaluation of work (i.e. what is working vs what is not working and what are the improvements that can be made?)

2. Installation of Care Group Model

 I established a systematic approach to deliver health messages in my community by creating a care group model. The group comprises of 12 trained health relais who deliver health talks in over 100 family households in three villages bi-weekly. The volunteers represent the three villages that the poste de santé serves: Saroudia, Dassalami Soce and Boutilimite. They received badges resembling our IDs and blouses. When I started the partnership with Child Fund two months ago, they mentioned they will continue the baby weighing with the Care Group volunteers. They received an orientation from Child Fund to improve upon the skills they already gained from the home visits and trainings we had. On a global scale, they were taught how to do health causeries, home visits and health talks on different topics. The certificates will be done next month and will be given to the volunteers by one of Child Fund agents, Diene Diouf who lives in Karang.

Some of the topics discussed this year included malaria, handwashing, diarrhea, tuberculosis, IRA, foods pregnant and lactating mothers must eat to increase breastmilk, foods mothers must give to their children who have diarrhea, baby weighing and cooking demonstrations on nutritious foods such as peanut butter porridge. This project was started to bridge the gap in sharing health information to the whole village.

CARE GROUP COMMITTEE
Name	Role	Location
Mohammed Diame	President	Dassalami Soce
Mama Ndour	Vice-President	Boutilimite
Alimatou Ba	Secretaire Generale	Dassalami Soce
Aramata Sonko	Tresoriere	Dassalami Soce
Ansou Sarr	President D’Organisation	Dassalami Soce
Adama Sonko	President Adjoint	Saroudia
Aminata Senghor	Secretaire Adjoint Generale	Saroudia
Sira Demba	Commissaire au Compte	Dassalami Soce
Aissatou-Diouf	Commissaire au Compte	Boutilimite
Fatou Sarr	Volontaire	Dassalami Soce
Alassane Ndiaye	Agent de Sante (ASC)	Dassalami Soce

Benefits	Challenges	Follow-Up Work Suggestions
1.  Ability to reach out to a wider audience and educate them on a variety of health topics in the comfort of their homes 2.  Health network established in rural community 3.  Guarantee of sharing the information to those who really need the information 4.  People who can serve as relais during health campaigns and cooking demonstrations 5.  Relais serve as peer educators to community	1.  Emphasis on showing up on time to the meetings consistently. (1-2 VADs per week) 2.  Motivating the care group volunteers to do the work 3.  Finding other educating tools besides pictures to teach non-educated volunteers (some of them cannot read or write) 4.  Fundraising ideas to help them finance cooking demonstrations and other health activities 5.  Developing more topics for ongoing training	1.  Reinforcement of  the Training of care group volunteers 2.  Care group Training on nutrition and maternal and child health issues 3.  Help the volunteers feel above their challenges through motivation activities 4.  Increase the cooking demonstrations in each village: Dassalami Soce, Saroudia and Boutilimite 5.  Promotion of  behavior change activities 6.  Monitoring & Evaluation of work (i.e. what is working vs what is not working and what are the improvements that can be made?)

3. Library Construction

I completed the construction and inaugurated a library for the French elementary school and the Arabic school. The two schools serve more than 300 students total in the village. We received donated French and Arabic books from the U.S. Embassy and Foundation for Second Chances, an American NGO Vanessa Dickey connected me to. The mentee formed part of the mentoring program of Estelle, the Award-winning singer of “American Boy.”

The staff including Akon’s mother and Estelle came for a three-day visit in Senegal. They had a cultural orientation, visited the pilot village Djinack Bara where these projects started and Dassalami Soce.  We are currently trying to formulate an action plan on teaching the school staff to classify the books and library management. This project was achieved to increase the reading level of the students, and advocate the importance of reading.

I was also the administrator of the Facebook page of the school to gain more visibility from NGO partners. This might be another great idea to create a separate Facebook page to gain NGO partners for the projects.

I was recently connected to Books For Africa, an American NGO by my friend Edens Duphrene, a SED volunteer in Ourosogui. We would receive about 2,745 French books with topics ranging from language books in Spanish, German, French and English to communication and management books. The school also received notebooks and pens from Foundation for Second Chances (FFSC) a few months later. I also urged the director to open a school mailing box which I have provided to you in the table.

The book topics include family life, technology books, information and communication, marketing, Economics, accounting and finance, Sociology, science books on geology, chemistry, physics, Earth and Life Sciences, Hygiene and sanitation, Human Biology, memoirs and bibliographies, novels, Thrillers, psychiatry and psychoanalysis, Math C.A.P./B.E.P and BAC Pro, History-Geography books, entrepreneurship, philosophy books, informatics, encyclopedias for children and teachers, Law, and Arts. They will also receive about 500 books for children aged 2-6 years old, students in high school, and college.

 The elementary school will have in addition 13,500 English books according to the grade level of the students.  I will provide you with the list of these books to facilitate the process. These books might arrive before or after I leave the village.  The school has been included in the next year project plan of Pharmaciens Sans Frontieres. This has already been confirmed by Ben, the coordinator of the NGO in the region.

The teachers who do not reside in Dassalami Soce will receive new rooms and they will ensure that the school has a fence around it. This initiative will happen after I leave village.

Benefits	Challenges	Follow-Up Work Suggestions
1.  Installation of a postal box for school Mailing Address: Lamine Sonko Ecole Elementaire de Dassilame Soce B.P. 75 Toubacouta Senegal, West Africa 2.  School included in the follow-up project of Pharmaciens Sans Frontieres 3.  Process to promote the importance of reading to children 4.  Improve the reading level of the students to help them pass their national exams 5.  Beginning stages of a library system comparable to the libraries in the U.S. to share books between schools or villages	1.  No electricity 2.  Lack of sufficient school supplies like pens, pencils, notebooks, dictionaries, etc. 3.  Need of more French books 4.  Acquisition of bookshelves for the library 5.  Lack of motivation from school staff to increase their network of NGOs	1.  Creation of a library club to increase the importance of reading and improving scores of students (bi-weekly or weekly meetings) 2.  Include reading classes in the school curriculum 3.  Classification of books using a library user-friendly system (more than 5000 books will be received-I will include some of the ressources Vanessa Dickey sent to start this process) 4.  Establishing “Access to English” camps 5.  Using another room in the school to classify the books in addition to the library because it is small 6.  Expanding the library to make it larger 7.  Build a library system so that books can be shared between the three villages (Dassalami Soce, Saroudia and Boutilimite) 8.  Holding computer classes 9.  Installation of computers, faxers, and printers to facilitate the task of the teachers for drawing lessons 10.    A fence to secure the school (already included in the PSF project) 11.    Rooms for teachers who are living in the village (already included in the PSF project) 12.     Monitoring & Evaluation of work (i.e. what is working vs what is not working and what are the improvements that can be made?)

4. Community Clean-Up Activities

I initiated bi-weekly community cleanups to promote safe hygiene practices with 1240 habitants of the village to reduce the number of illnesses caused by unsanitary environments throughout the year. The women leader for these activities was chosen by the community. Her name is Johnnie Senghor, the wife of the President of the Health Committee of the Poste de Sante.

In these activities, I had to be flexible with the community’s seasonal schedule. You can find more information on these tools in the Participatory Assessment Community Action (PACA) book.  I can send you an online version of the book. I found that doing a PACA assessment has been very helpful in determining the times I can do these activities and hold meetings with the community. In the community cleanups, it is important to know that no women will work during the rainy season. Most people will go to the fields or stay in their households. 

Johnnie Senghor and the matrone Sounkarou Diame played a key role in mobilizing the women to clean the village. Tamsir Sarr is the president of the men’s association. I have never worked with him but I know his family well. I think he might become a great resource to you. 

Benefits	Challenges	Follow-Up Work Suggestions
1.  Promotes safe hygiene practices 2.  Reduces the number of children who are sick from bacteria found on the ground 3.  Encourages men and women to work together for a clean village 4.  Encourages children to adopt safe hygiene methods	1.  Lack of motivation from the women to clean the village 2.  The community wants to do their own work in the household. They are not thinking for the community at-large. 3.  Ensuring that women and men work together on community clean-up. The men tend to stand on the sidelines and watch the women do all the work. 4.  Changing their behaviors towards cleanliness 5.  Emphasizing the importance of cleaning a community and make the connection to children’s health 6.  Ensuring that women and men respect their commitments to the clean-up activities	1.  Combining community clean-ups with health causeries to promote safe hygiene  2.  Engaging more men in the community cleanups 3.  Setting up a system where if someone does not show up, they will pay a fee for their absence (i.e. 100cfa) 4.  Working with the women’s associations: Modou Modou, Groupe Juubo, Dial Dialy, Action, Dialyba, Blinde, and Association Sportif Culturel (ASC) 5.  Setting up Behavior change activities on community cleanups 6.  Looking for more people with whom you can partner with for these activities 7.  Monitoring & Evaluation of work (i.e. what is working vs what is not working and what are the improvements that can be made?)

5. Community Garden / Nutrition Project with Child Fund

I launched a partnership with Child Fund to build community gardens in the community.  During the meetings, the community decided that the garden would be in the school grounds of the French School.  With the construction of the new mosque, they decided that it would be wise to begin a garden in the coming year. Unfortunately, the school does not have strong ties with the community. Therefore, the community seems reticent to build the garden.

Child Fund stepped in and said they will help the community build the community garden. If everything goes according to plan, they would increase the number of community gardens. They are going to use this experience as a pre-test experiment to see how the community can work together. This agreement has been finalized two months ago and you will have a chance to meet them when you install in the village.

Child Fund has been good in making sure we have regular malnutrition screening in the past few months. In the end of the document, I have given you a list of farmers who have worked with the former AG PCVS Justin Ross and Aviva Braun. Because this project started late in my service, I did not have a chance to meet these people. I think they might become great resources to you.

This would serve as an initiation process to promote better nutrition in more than 2000 households. It would also reduce malnutrition in the three communities. It would combine nutrition and gardening as tools to promote better nutrition. Each household would benefit from trainings on Nutrition to reduce 50% of malnutrition rates among children aged 0-5yrs old in Dassalami Soce.

Benefits	Challenges	Follow-Up Work Suggestions
1. Support better nutrition in more than 2000 households 2. Reduce malnutrition in rural communities among children aged 0-5 yrs old 3. Encourage nutrition trainings in community 4. Combining nutrition and gardening to empower families to eat better foods 5. Promote Peace Corps gardening techniques 6. Connecting the community with people who are the “positive deviants”	1. Getting a certifying letter from Child Fund to legitimize their work in Dassalami Soce. As a result, they will not be seen as an NGO coming to do work and leave abruptly during one’s service 2. Lack of motivation from the community to work with French school 3. Community does not like the French school too much because they think the children who attend are following  another religion 4. Demystifying this  belief is key to successful projects between the school and community 5. Women and men do not have the time to maintain and water the garden because of daily activities 6. Lack of investment from teachers and director financially-they want the population to do the work but do not understand that they must be engaged as well to make this a sustainable project. 7. The school staff is not assuming their responsibilities in the decision. 8. Finding people to water the garden	1. Continue the work with Child Fund to build a sustainable garden 2.Talk to Josie Luu and combine the Nutrition training for the garden project 3.Use contacts provided by Justin and Aviva: (Samba Ly is one of them because he is a successful Master Farmer) 4.Increasing the knowledge of the village on proper nutrition, setting up community gardens with the help of Child Fund 5.Working with the women’s associations: Modou Modou, Groupe Juubo, Dial Dialy, Action, Dialyba, Blinde, and Association Sportif Culturel (ASC) 6. Community wants to start the garden next year 7. Holding trainings on nutritional needs, 8.Garden Implementation 9. Moringa Powder propagation and Moringa leaves processing. 10. Master farmers’ nutrition activities 11. Preparation of hygienic nutritious foods 12. Behavior Change Activities surrounding the issues between the school and the community 13. Monitoring & Evaluation of work (i.e. what is working vs what is not working and what are the improvements that can be made?)

6. One-On-One Consulting Sessions

I assisted over 10 volunteers in 4 different sectors (AG, SusAG, Health and SED) to plan their projects using community diagnostics, assess the benefits and disadvantages of potential ideas in context to the socio-cultural realities of their communities. I helped the volunteers focus on sustainable growth, developing concrete plans for their projects to ensure the success of their projects. I am continuing to be a resource to new volunteers on project planning and implementation. This was done to help them conceive their projects using community diagnostics.

7. Latrine Project

I wanted to install new and improved latrines in the community. Based on the baseline survey, 100% of the community needed improved latrines. I will give you a copy of the baseline survey which you can also find in my blog. I have done the preliminary work a year before through meetings, and contacted NGOs with whom I think I could work with. We also asked the community to fundraise 7000 cfa per household. I also applied to Appropriate Projects, Water and Sanitation NGO based in the U.S. They help fund Peace Corps volunteers’ small water and sanitation projects.

The maximum amount you can receive is $555 or 274,000cfa. The application can be found on their website. I received the full amount for the project but the money was not sufficient. Afterwards, we found an entrepreneur who asked for 900,000cfa per latrine which was an exorbitant price for the project.  This is a very typical behavior when you reach out to individuals to work on those types of projects. Because they see you work with Peace Corps, they will try to take advantage of the situation.

This project was on standby until a few weeks ago, Pharmaciens Sans Frontieres agreed to include the latrine project in their future plans. They had the meeting with the coordinator Ben Ndiaye and said they would confirm in two months in order to include it in the document. This project is taking some time to be implemented because we are constantly looking for NGO partners. The money from the community is in the hands of Alassane Ndiaye.

I also reached out to Garrison Harward, a SED RPCV who lived in Dassalami Sereer, a village in Toubacouta. The current volunteer who lives there is named Elise SwaneKamp, AG volunteer. He gave the information of the masons he used to have latrines built in his site. I also attended a Water and Sanitation conference/training in the Gambia for the project. Some of the resources given to us include information on different types of latrines, and the preliminary work to be done before installing them. Latrine projects are expensive, but we have been receiving good feedbacks from Pharmaciens Sans Frontieres. The research for NGO partners is ongoing for the project.

Benefits	Challenges	Follow-Up Work Suggestions
1.  Each household will benefit from new and improved latrines 2.  Reduce the amount of illnesses caused by water-borne diseases 3.  Access of every rural community to new and improved latrines	1.  Finding masons who will build latrines for every household at a lower price (check baseline survey) 2.  Finding an NGO who will fully fund the project 3.  Convincing the community to fundraise more money for the latrine project per household 4.  Sometimes, these projects may take years to take full effect	1.  Meet the masons Garrison used in Dassalami Sereer to discuss this project (the contacts are provided in the end of the document) 2.  Researching latrine options for Dassalami Soce, Saroudia and Boutilimite 3.  Researching other potential NGOs or work partners to build sustainable latrines. 4.  Holding informal household training sessions on latrine construction and management 5.  Administering a baseline survey on latrine usage 6.  Monitoring & Evaluation of work (i.e. what is working vs what is not working and what are the improvements that can be made?)

8. Water and Sanitation Project

According to the baseline survey, the community needs safe water sources. Although there are four wells in the village, they are all uncovered and are subject to contamination.  The other caveat is the children throw objects in the well or in some cases, animals would roam and defecate near the well. Most of the diarrheal cases occur during the rainy season because the acid rain falls inside the wells. As a result, people tend to be sick and do not understand that those illnesses caused by the water. Some of these topics were covered in the WADA conference I attended in the Gambia on water and sanitation. This is the main reason I wanted to undertake the project by installing faucets or covering and treating the existing wells in the community.

This project has been put on hold because it has been difficult to find funds to cover and treat the wells, or to place faucets in the village. I have done the preliminary work and spoke to the Ministry of the Eaux Hydrauliques last year.  However, I have not had an answer from these authorities. They travel all the time and they are located in Dakar. This project was initiated to reduce the rate of diarrheal diseases caused by unclean water and provide access to people to safe water sources.

Benefits	Challenges	Follow-Up Work Suggestions
1.  Household access to clean water 2.  Reduce the rate of diarrheal diseases caused by drinking unclean water	1.   Sensitizing the community on their financial contribution. The water is not going to be given to them for free 2.   Finding an NGO who can fully fund the project to either cover and treat the wells or to install faucets 3.   Explaining the benefits of having clean water in the community	1.  Find means to cover the wells or install faucets 2.  Finding the best options to have safe water access in the village 3.  Teaching the community on how to treat their water 4.  Establish community trainings on hand washing stations, water treatment, and storage methods 5.  Identifying potential counterparts as hand washing promoters. 6.  Forming a water committee in the community. Making sure that these people are adequate for the project 7.  Studying the logistics of how much it would cost to do this project. 8.  Setting up behavior change activities on water and sanitation 9.  Read resource materials on the matter. I can provide these to you upon request. 10. Monitoring & Evaluation of work (i.e. what is working vs what is not working and what are the improvements that can be made?)