04 February 2002

Bonn, Germany: A UNV Action Team comprised of 15 United Nations Volunteers working in strife-torn Sierra Leone have donated time after hours to deliver safe drinking water to a school for children with polio.
Sixty children and teachers live on the compound of the Freetown Cheshire Home, but many more students visit the centre every day to take in its educational and health services.

The centre suffers from a shortage of funds. After the payment of staff salaries, roughly 30 dollars a month -- a dollar a day -- the school does not have the means to cover its additional costs. Many staff members work on a voluntary basis, but costs continue to rise.

For a number of years the school's connection to the public water network has been broken. The home's teachers and students were forced to make a 45-minute journey on foot to a nearby camp that sells water from a municipal pump to the public. The local camp had been forced to issue a fee on the water in order to preserve the scarce resource. Eventually there was no longer enough money to pay for the Cheshire Home's water consumption. Activities were reduced and hygiene was severely compromised.

The UNV Action Team, which has taken on other projects in Freetown, responded to the crisis by constructing a well within the compound of the Cheshire Home, providing the centre with direct access to water. A water company was contracted to manage the project, and UN Volunteers provided the labour. The home now has a self-sustained water source and an alternative means to generate revenue through the sale of water to the community.