According to the Town Chief, several years ago, Mercy Corps constructed two hand pumps for the over 50 towns and villages of the township. One of the pump head was stolen during the civil war in 2003 and the other had broken down due to population pressure and lack of maintenance. Harmonville has not had a functioning clean water system for over 5 years.

In June 2011 , FACE Africa and a representative from GUCDA, a development agency in Liberia focused on water and sanitation projects, completed a joint technical WASH need assessment in Harmonville for the rehabilitation of a hand pump and hygiene promotion program. Result of the need assessment showed that there was a serious need for WASH intervention in Harmonville.

With generous support from CoverGirl, we implemented a project to rehabilitate the pump to allow for the provision of safe drinking water and promote safe hygiene practices for an estimated population of 2,000 persons.

PROJECT ACTIVITIES

• Hand Pump Rehabilitation: rehabilitation of an existing hand pump

• Hygiene Promotion: using village to village method to communicate the importance of utilizing the hand pump and conducting proper sanitation practices

• Pump Mechanic Training: The project will organize and train WASH Service Management Committee in the community for the maintenance of pump

Please stay tuned for more updates and click here for more photos.

Below is summary of the day from Pembroke Hill’s website. Read the original post here.

Africa Day Celebrated In Eighth Grade

Did you know there are 54 countries on the continent of Africa, and over 1,500 languages are spoken there?  Were you aware that the dances of Africa tell a story and it is through this venue that cultural history is passed from one generation to another? This type of information, delivered to Pembroke Hill eighth graders by numerous African natives, was the basis of the annual Africa Day, which is the culminating activity for the students’ study of that region of the world.

The morning began with an inspiring film presented by former Pembroke Hill parent Gloria Baker Feinstein, who as a professional photographer attended a photography workshop in Uganda several years ago.  She fell in love with the area and one orphanage in particular, St. Mary Kevin.  Upon returning to the United States, Gloria explained that she felt compelled to help the orphanage and founded the not-for-profit Change The Truth that provides both monetary and volunteer aid to the orphanage.

A highpoint of the morning was a performance, sponsored by Young Audiences, of The African Caravan From the Traditional Music Society.  The group played drums, danced traditional dances and even had student volunteers up on stage learning some of the steps!

Native Nigerian and Pembroke Hill parent Nola Adebo prepared a delicious lunch of traditional foods including jollof rice, chicken stew and fried plantains.  She created the lunch offerings from fresh ingredients she obtained from a local African market.  Later in the day, Mrs. Adebo lead a session with students during which she explained life, politics and the economics of her homeland.  She also displayed some traditional clothing items.

During other sessions, students make jewelry that artisans in Africa create to sell in the marketplaces.  They also wrote letters to the children of St. Mary Kevin.

A third session featured two guest speakers, one from Egypt, Karim Mikhail, and one from Zambia, Chiluba Musonda, during which they spoke of growing up in Africa, their personal stories of how they came to Kansas City and how their native cultures compare to the American way of life.

The final activity of the day was learning several African dance routines as a group from Michele Reznicek.

On Saturday, March 26th, we hosted our 2nd Annual Clean Water Benefit Gala at The Taj Boston. Over 200 guests attended the event which was being held to raise awareness and funds for our clean water initiatives in Liberia. The event raised $75,000 thanks to the generosity of our guests, sponsors and other community-spirited people and companies who all contributed!

The funds raised will go towards multiple clean water and sanitation projects that will benefit thousands of people in Liberia. Read more about our recently completed project in Joezohn, Liberia here.

The evening kicked off with a VIP reception welcoming chef, author, humanitarian and FACE Africa honoree Marcus Samuelsson, his wife, model Maya Haile Gate, and distinguished guests Former Ambassador of Liberia to the United States M. Nathaniel Barnes, NBA All Star Dikembe Mutombo, Designer and Actress Whitney Port, and NFL athlete Rennie Curran. Music was provided by local jazz band Soul4YoSytem and decor by New York based Fete Atelier.

The event included a silent auction featuring items generously donated by DeBeers, Christian Dior, Marc Jacobs, Whitney Port, RJL Companies, The Mandarin Oriental Boston, Cynthia Rowley, Tea Forte, La Perla and more.

The silent auction was followed by a 3-course dinner and program in the Grand Ballroom of the Taj Boston where guests were welcomed by WHDH reporter Michelle Relerford and our Executive Director, Saran Kaba Jones.

The program included a remark from Honorary Chair of the evening M. Nathaniel Barnes, followed by a video presentation about Whitney Port and her family’s recent humanitarian trip to Liberia. Port said a few words regarding her involvement with FACE Africa and her dedication to continue supporting the organization’s projects in Liberia.

Ms. Kaba Jones presented the FACE Africa Humanitarian Award to Marcus Samuelsson. As a UNICEF ambassador and Tap Project spokesperson, Samuelsson has traveled extensively to highlight the importance of finding and delivering clean drinking water to children all over the world. In his acceptance speech, Samuelsson remarked that while poverty in the U.S. generally means limited access to healthy foods, across Africa the impoverished lack an even more basic necessity – clean water.

The evening concluded with a few words from Emmett Wilson, FACE Africa’s Program Administrator in Liberia. Every guest went home with a FACE Africa tote courtesy of Northpoint Printing teeming with goodies from Divine Chocolate, Tommy Bahama, VAPUR Water and more.

Our Annual Gala would not be possible without our generous sponsors. Through gifts in kind and financial contributions, our sponsors cover our event and production costs, as well as donate items for the silent auction and gift bags. We cannot thank them enough for their support and generosity. A special thanks to our Gold Sponsor, De Beers!   

A huge thank you to all those that attended! It will all be happening again next year and we hope we can count on your continued support in 2012. Your support of FACE Africa and the vital work we are doing to increase access to clean water and sanitation facilities in Liberia is greatly appreciated.

In Solidarity,

The FACE Africa Team

View more photos from the Gala at: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?fbid=10150120384283742&id=55276183741&aid=288686.

Read about the Gala in the Boston Globe: http://www.boston.com/ae/celebrity/articles/2011/03/28/facing_up_to_a_challenge/

Read about the Gala on Haute Living: http://www.hauteliving.com/2011/03/haute-event-face-africa-hosts-2nd-annual-clean-water-gala/

View our Clean Water Video produced by Camlin Productions:  http://www.faceafrica.org/our-programs/

The World Walks for Water is a global event from 19-22 March 2011, that aims to raise awareness of the world’s current water and sanitation crisis, and critically, demand strong government action to stop the needless deaths of 4000 children every day. (http://www.worldwalksforwater.org/eng)

We need YOU to get involved, too.

Join FACE Africa on Sunday, March 20th as we Walk for Water.

Date: Sunday, March 20th, 2011     Time: 1:00pm

Starting location: JFK Park on JFK St. in Cambridge (intersection of JFK St and Memorial Drive – in Harvard Sq)

Route: We’ll be walking about 6km (less than 4 miles) along Memorial Drive

Ending location: Harvard Sq.

Considering that it is still March, you never know what the weather will be. Please be prepared for any weather. We will be walking rain, snow or sunshine, because every day, people walk for water – whatever the weather.

For more information contact:
Jen Noris at jennorins@gmail.com or contact@faceafrica.org

Today marks the 100^th anniversary of International Women’s Day.  In honor of the occasion, FACE Africa Gala supporter Divine Chocolate is celebrating the incredible women cocoa farmers of Kuapa Kokoo.  They’re offering chocolate lovers and fair traders around the country an exciting opportunity to support their women farmers while enjoying a bar of Divine Chocolate!

Another Reason Women Think Chocolate is Divine

Kuapa Kokoo is a farmer’s cooperative of 45,000 members who supply the cocoa for each bar of Divine.  The role of women in Kuapa Kokoo is significant- from their participation in all levels of decision making, their advancement in leadership roles (including having a woman president of the union), and Kuapa’s commitment to the economic empowerment of women.

The women of Kuapa Kokoo are trained in small business enterprises such as batik and soap making and the raising of crops for sale in the local market.  The women can then borrow from the credit union to make their business operational, allowing for additional income to be earned for the family in the off season.

Economic empowerment not only equips women with the resources they need to provide for their families, it increases their influence in their family and communities.  As many Kuapa Kokoo women have said, participating in the women’s groups gives them a tremendous sense of pride.

$1 Off for You, Investment in Women Farmers

Beginning today and continuing through the spring, Divine will be offering special $1 off coupons for our delectable chocolate.  For every coupon redeemed, Divine will invest an additional amount of money into Kuapa Kokoo’s Women’s Fund – to help increase the resources available to women cocoa farmers and ensure that even more women’s groups can participate.

Be sure to get your coupon and participate in the Divine Chocolate Women’s Campaign by checking out their Facebook page.

Christiana Ohene-Agyare, the National President of Kuapa Kokoo, once told Divine, “being a member of Kuapa Kokoo has taught me that whatever a man can do, a woman can also do and even better.”

Want to hear first-hand about what it’s like to be a woman farmer in Kuapa Kokoo?  Check out this video with Comfort Kumeah.

FACE Africa is proud to work with Divine Chocolate. Every guest at our 2nd Annual Gala will receive an individually wrapped Divine Chocolate!

Date: February 14, 2011

Back Ground

Joezohn is a community on the outskirts of Montserrado County with a little over 300 residents, 70% of which are women and children. Before the intervention of FACE Africa, this community was faced with a series of health issues, due to the lack of safe drinking water and safe toilet facilities.

In mid 2010 FACE Africa’s Executive Director, Mrs. Saran K. Jones visited this community and came in contact with the deplorable living conditions of the people. She found out that the entire community’s source of drinking was from was a small contaminated creek, which they also used to wash and swim. The inhabitants walked a few yards away from the their living quarters into the bushes to use the toilet out in the open.

FACE Africa as an organization whose mission is to help provide safe drinking water to needy communities in Africa, through the hard work of its ED raised $10,000 USD and signed a MOU with its implementing partner (Concern Liberia) to construct one hand pump and six toilet compartments for this community. Our partner toke three months period to construct the facilities.

Dedication

The dedication of FACE Africa’s second clean water and sanitation project was held at Joezohn community town hall. Planning and strategies for the ceremony were prepared by myself, Emmett G. Wilson (FACE Africa’s Program Administrator in Liberia) in consultation with our partner Concern Liberia and the community leaders. A series of visits were made to the community, to discuss with its leaders on the most suitable date for the ceremony. After these meetings back and forward, all stake holders agreed on February 14 as the final date for the dedication program.

This is the official program activities:

Opening Prayer —————————– Community

Welcome Remarks ————————- Bill Sackor (community leader)

Remarks ————————————– Town Chief

Elders

Women

Special Remarks —————————- Concern Liberia (Mrs. Vestor Nelson)

Concern Health Officer

Special Remark ————————— FACE Africa (Mr. Emmett G. Wilson)

Program Administrator

Dedication of Facilities —————– Dr. Brahima Kaba

FACE Africa Board Member

Benediction —————————— Community

The following individual graced the program, Mr. Christopher Sirleaf (Truth FM Radio) and Mr. Weah E. Harris (New Dawn News Paper).

Speaking at the ceremony community leader Bill Sackor, said that his community had been forgotten and FACE Africa was the first organization in many years to fulfill its promise to his community. He also offers special thanks and appreciation to the FACE Africa family for coming to the urgent need of his community. Mr. Sackor said his community will forever remember those whose hard work brought clean water and toilets to them.

Also speaking was Mrs. Vestor Nelson who represented our partner Concern. Mrs. Nelson encouraged the community to properly maintain the facilities, stressing that when properly maintained they would be helpful and when not properly maintained they could be harmful. She also thanked FACE Africa for the partnership and said they look forward for more partnerships.

Speaking on behalf of the women of Joezohn was Ma Doris, who spoke in her local diakect, (Bassa) and was interpreted by a community member. She thanked the FACE Africa and Concern family for the facilities, saying that the provision of these facilities have significantly improved their life’s. She also recounted the difficulties they had with clean and safe drinking water prior to the provision of the clean water project. Finally she appealed to FACE Africa to help them with a school in their community, mentioning that their kids walk very long distances to the nearest school.

FACE Africa’s board member Dr. Brahima Kaba was invited to dedicate the facilities, but said he would be absent due to some pressing official engagement. He asked me to speak on his behalf, and gave his best wishes to the community inhabitants.

During my remarks on behalf of FACE Africa, I firstly thanked FACE Africa’s donors through whom we are able to make a positive impact in the lives of many people in forgotten areas. I also thanked the Executive Director, Mrs. Saran K. Jones for her tireless effort as she travels around the world to raise funds to provide clean water for needed communities, towns and villages in Liberia. I expressed my thanks and appreciation also to our partner Concern, and acknowledged the level of hard work throughout the partnership. I also urged the community  to properly maintain the facilities, stressing that these facilities were provide through hard earned money of very generous people around the world. Finally I revealed that FACE Africa intends to provide similar facilities in ten communities this year, so as to improved the lives of hundreds of people in Africa that are faced with clean water issues.

CHALLENGES

There were no major challenges faced by FACE Africa during this project. What we faced was a little delay in preparing for the dedication of the project, due to the very busy schedule of our partner Concern.

Recommendation

Judging from our evaluation with the Joezohn project, FACE Africa Liberia recommends to its head office that the visibility component of its project be carried out by us and not our implementing partners. I also suggest that we have a presence at preliminary project site visits along with our partners. We should also have a community gathering  prior to the start of all of our projects, during which period we will raise awareness of our organization. This day will be used to provide information like:

Ø  Who is funding the project

Ø  What are we involve into

Ø  Where have we worked

Ø  Who are our partners

This information is intended to be provided before the project starts, so that we don’t confuse the community with two organization’s presence. Finally we recommend that there is a schedule monitor and evaluation component in all of our MOU with our partners.

Story of change / Impact story

Recognizing the fact that the people of Joezohn community are no longer drinking from a contaminated creek and using the bathrooms in bushes few yards away from the town, we can now stamp this as a story of change.

Finally, thank you to all those whose support to FACE Africa has brought high level of dignity to the life of the people of Joezohn. As our Executive Director once said, “clean water is not just a matter of life, it’s a matter of dignity.”

Through partnerships with artists, designers, celebrities and other fair-trade initiatives, we will design and market t-shirts, tote bags, jewelry, and other accessories to raise critical funds for our programs and services. Every product purchased helps in two ways: 1) Creates employment and provides sustainable income for women 2) Funds clean water and sanitation projects.

Our goal is to ultimately launch an economic venture that will bring financial independence, development and livelihood skills to poor and disadvantaged women in Liberia.

This Valentines day, we launched with a line of Basic Tees, that are light-weight and super soft with a burnt-out texture. We are so grateful to Michael Thompson for the amazing designs and can’t wait to show you what else we have in store! Soon we will feature tees made entirely in Liberia by the Liberian Women Sewing Project.

Make sure to stop by our SHOP and spread the love while helping to bring clean and safe drinking water to Liberia, one tee at a time.

“Every day on HuffPost, we’re highlighting one ‘Greatest Person’- an exceptional individual who is responding to issues with creativity, generosity, and passion. Today we’re profiling Saran Kaba Jones, who founded a nonprofit organization working to provide clean, safe drinking water to the people of Liberia.”

Congrats Saran! Here’s a screenshot of yesterday’s homepage. Click here to read full article.