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| Engineers Without Border UDDT Toilet Built at an Axim Junior High School |
We visited this new design urine
diversification/dehydration toilet in Feb. 2015—literally. Maryanne can vouch
for the fact that IT WORKS, even for senior American females!! She was
skeptical, but Colleen Mitchell, EWB engineer extraordinaire, kept reassuring
her…
Anyway, Axim is the kind of place where word gets around,
and Headmistress Esther Abbey is the kind of woman who goes after new good
things for “her students." So, she requested Western Heritage Home to replace
the “old” toilet at her Methodist “Government” Primary/JHS school, with nearly
1000 students.
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| Headmistress Esther Abbey, with two of the Axim Library Staff. Her school was also one of the first to adopt the Axim Public Library's Mobile Library to Schools service |
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| "Old Toilet"---VERY, VERY Old!! |
We of Ghana Together loved the idea of building another
UDDT, having seen for ourselves how much of an improvement the first one has
been for the students (and teachers).
This low impact---no electricity/no water---design is so
much better than the old “ventilated pit” type commonly built there. We want
the knowledge of this worldwide engineering effort to be spread. What better
way than to get another 1000 kids familiar with the concept??
So, we informed James Kainyiah, the WHH Chair, that
somehow we’d find the funds, but we requested that the folks there provide
volunteer help as possible, keeping in mind that few people there actually have
tools like sledgehammers, wheelbarrows, work gloves, saws, hammers, etc. And with the power out a lot, most days are just twelve hours of daylight to do everything, but still…
Indomitable James engaged the help of the AXIM YOUTH
ALLIANCE (AYA).
Just this past Saturday (May 23) members of the AYA managed to tear down the old toilet. Wow!!!
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| Somehow these guys found a truck...and got to work! |
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| What shall we do with all this concrete? |
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| Haul it into town... |
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| ...and use it to fill potholes!! |
Founded in Sept, 2014, this organization of the under-35 age group in Axim has as its mission to work towards the advancement of Axim and its environs in terms of infrastructure, capacity building, and human resource.
We don’t know much about them at this point, but we are very grateful for their efforts.
And we think it’s REALLY great that such a group has formed!! Possibilities here…
Now the new building can commence in the next few weeks. We asked about what the kids are supposed to do with no toilet for perhaps the rest of this term, but we were told that they were not using the old toilet anyway, but were opting for the bush…
Stay tuned...
And if you’d like to help top off the toilet fund…we are:
