Gulf International Bank UK Ltd- Mogbencha Village

WATER 

Residents of Mogbencha a rural community in the Moyamba District worked in partnership with WellFound to construct a borehole drilled manually to make water more accessible to the inhabitants benefitting a total of about 40 households. Providing access to water enables residents to reallocate time spent hauling water into all activities.  The people of Mogbencha are enjoying clean, safe and adequate water for drinking and other purposes. In a recent visit conducted by the team. 

MARKET GARDEN & MICRO SAVINGS AND LOANS 

The people of the Mogbencha community benefitted the socio-economic from the Market gardening and Micro saving Scheme as it continued to be the source of income for the beneficiaries of the community. The income derived has been used for paying school fees, buying assets, agricultural inputs, and food. Evaluations have confirmed that the benefits resulted in improvement in the quality of life of the rural people. 

 Field days, monitoring and evaluation by Project Supervisor, and gar round have transformed gardening to sustain food security in the district. Social benefits like team spirit and stress reduction and community participation are important for development. Challenges such as conflicts and power contestations are inherent, and measures have been taken to solve such problems as they contribute to community breakdown.  Harvesting was done and another cycle of crop production is ongoing as the beds are prepared and seeds planted.   

The Village savings and loans (VSLA) schemes has made a tremendous impact in the lives of women in the Kargboro chiefdom and Mogbencha. Women are collecting loans from the scheme and used the money to have a business as they can now take care of their children and support their husbands.  

SANITATION & HYGIENE PROMOTION 

WellFound continues its behaviour change communication, which is a gradual process whereby community Health Volunteers (CHV’s) trained by WellFound are disseminating information’s on four (4) key behaviours: Handwashing with soap and water, cleanliness and maintenance of latrines, Safe water handling, transportation and storage and Solid waste Management at household level propagating the importance of latrines and handwashing. 

Inhabitants of the MogbenchaCommunity are embarking on hand washing with soap and clean water, safe water storage etc.  

EQUALITY 

Achieving gender equality is key to ending extreme poverty. The evidence is clear when women and girls have a quality education, access to health care, sustainable livelihoods and a seat at the decision-making table, economies shift. Women’s empowerment is a critical aspect of achieving gender equality. It includes increasing a woman’s sense of self-worth, her decision-making power, her access to opportunities and resources, her power and control over her own life inside and outside of the home, and her ability to effect change.  

WellFound continues to ensure that women not only earn money as their male counterparts but also get the same access to economic independence by making significant change in the lives of women in the Mogbencha Community, Kargboro Chiefdom as the Village Savings and Loans (VSLA) scheme has made significant impact in the lives of women because women can now support their households by engaging in businesses because of loans taken from the VSLA. 

Several women in the Mogbencha Community have established their own business and they are supporting their children and husband due to the loan taken. According to testimonies from various women, the Micro Saving Scheme has helped them a lot by regaining their businesses and they can now support their husband and children which has made a huge difference in the home. 

SUSTAINABILITY 

Sustainability is the key in WellFound’s approach as WASH services are sustainable when they are owned, managed, and maintained by the community, and when appropriate behaviour exists to support the effective usage of the WASH infrastructure.  The WASH Committee members trained by WellFound are living and working among community members to ensure that any development project – WASH or otherwise – is understood, relevant and owned by the community, so there is motivation for the project to endure after WellFound leaves. Community participation is high, the quality of implementation is good, and the reliability of the system is very high. 

The communities of Mogbencha, continued their efforts to improve their community. Initiatives were taken to sustain the initiatives taken by them. Setting up the micro-savings, and more importantly upskilling themselves in management, improving their literacy skills, learn agriculture techniques. Women now have a well-equipped committee who manages the community programmes. They are also using a system to collect money, organise them and also loan them for further development. The project is in the very last stage of getting water. Prior to that, the community is well and ready to progress upon receiving water.

WellFound expects the well to be completed early January. 

The community of Mogbencha wishes all their supporters a great Christmas and a prosperous new year. 

Mogbencha village had a great success in setting their sustainable measures. A number of health workshops were delivered with the view to improving their health behaviour and start building latrines. At various points of the village, hand washing stations were set up and now communities are very much using them to keep their hands and legs clean. They are washing hands at 5 critical times. 

Women empowerment programme taking place in the village and it was fantastic to see women taking great leadership in setting \Village Saving Schemes and started saving money to maintain the forthcoming well and also to loan for each other. 

Management committee also been set-up to ensure the programme goes beyond. Women and men in equally participating in the programme. 

Currently, the committee is working towards building the well. Fantastic progress. 

• Gulf_July_update_July_2258.pdf (PDF)
  

A recent visit to the village demonstrated great effort by the communities to sustain their activities. Women in particular have made significant efforts to improve their lives. Communities are regularly saving funds to improve their facilities. They have expanded their market garden to integrate new vegetables and fruits. The community are coming together to improve their environment. The project in particular addressed the needs of disabled. Yma, the disabled lady now have her own market garden and now have a living. The programme has made singnficant influence over other villages and are all looking at the best results produced here and willing to take similar pathway to improve their lives 

Work in Chorkolor is ongoing and the community is going from strength to strength. As the year draws to a close, we would like to update you with some recent developments in Chorkolor and remind you of the incredible impact which you have helped to create. 

Clean and safe water is flowing freely to all who need it, approximately 170 people. For those 170, this has been life changing, for some (espeecially young children), it has been life saving. We are happy to report that the pump is in good working order and the community are ensuring that it stays that way. 

Women in the Market Garden are crowing a variety of nutritious and profitable crops, such as maize, pepper, tomatoes, okra and eggplant. This year alone the women have had two harvests, and are preparing for their third cropping cycle. This is fantastic news and clearly shows how engaged the women are in the garden, and how much the crops are benefitting not only the women in the market garden, but their families and the community at large. With every harvest, women not only fight malnutrition with a balanced and healthy diet of fresh vegetables, but excess is sold for profit, bringing in much needed income. Truly transformational. For women living with disabilities, such as Yeama, vegetable gardens with raised beds and improved access have been built, so that every woman is able to grow fresh and healthy produce.

However, sustainable economic empowerment for women does not stop with the market garden. Women have established a Village Savings and Loans system. This allows women to loan each other money to establish new businesses and support their families during tough times, with minimal interest. This has had a huge impact according to local women like Abibatu, who said: "In the past we could only access [loans with] huge interest rates, and when people could not pay, they would run away. But WellFound has made it easier for us to loan within our group and support our families". In the first week of December alone, the community saved 220,000 Leones, which equates to about £15GBP. This may not sound like much, but in a community where most people live on less than $1.90 a day, that is a major achievement and an incredibly encouraging sign that the residents of Chorkolor are on their way to becoming economically empowered and independent. 

In addition to these fantastic achievements, education on hygiene continues to give people vital knowledge on how to stay safe and healthy, particularly in the age of COVID-19. Equality workshops are focusing on fostering a more equal society, with women and girls being included in decision making and being free to decide their own paths in life, instead of sticking to traditional gender roles. 

All in all, Chorkolor community is well on its way to becoming a prosperous, equal and self-sustaining community. None of this would be possible without your suport, so on behalf of everyone at WellFound and from Chrokolor community...THANK YOU!