19 results for tag: Africa

Back to Benin

As all of our friends and supporters know, SOIL has been working to improve access to safe, dignified sanitation in Haiti since 2006. But you may not know that from time to time, SOIL also lends a hand with Ecological Sanitation (EcoSan) projects around the globe. Recently, SOIL’s Port-au-Prince Regional Director, Baudeler "Bobo" Magloire, returned to the West African country of Benin to follow up on a project launched way back in 2012 in partnership with the Solar Electric Light Fund (SELF) and their local partner, ADESCA. This project was funded through a National Geographic Blackstone Innovation Challenge grant. While many of you are old ...

Talking Soil with Peter Morgan

In May 2012 my husband Anthony and I had the very special opportunity to spend several days with a dear friend of mine, and SOIL’s deepest inspiration.  Peter Morgan is a British Marine Biologist who has lived in Zimbabwe for over 40 years.  Although trained as a biologist Peter has dedicated his life to addressing basic human rights such as water and sanitation.  Though quite a humble man, Peter has been an inspiration not only to SOIL but to water and sanitation engineers around the world through his development of simple innovative technologies, our favorite of which is the arborloo. I first met Peter in 2005 at a conference in South Africa ...

Bobo's amazing homecoming!

At long last Bobo arrived home in Haiti today and was received by the entire SOIL team at the airport, complete with loud instruments and dozens of Haitian flags. He looked as fresh as a spring day, don’t know how he did it after such a long flight, maybe it was just the relief of finally being home that somehow miraculously pressed his shirt. We are eternally grateful to everyone who stepped in to help SOIL and Bobo during this difficult time.  Everyone can break out the champagne now and start enjoying the weekend. Bobo is back on Haitian soil!!!!! Lakay se lakay.   We apologize for not having more images to share.  We were all just ...

Wrapping up the Toilet Tour in Nairobi, Kenya

Co-written by Anthony Kilbride and Sasha Kramer For the complete photo set check out SOIL's Flickr page Last stop on the toilet tour Nairobi, Kenya Our last stop on the toilet tour was Nairobi Kenya where we would spend 4 days visiting some well known urban sanitation projects that we have been fascinated with for some time.  SOIL’s primary work in Haiti focuses on sanitation solutions for densely populated impoverished neighborhoods, one of the most challenging situations facing humanity today.  Each year millions of people flood into cities searching for life, or 'chache lavi' as they say in Haiti. In places like Haiti, where there is little ...

Bobo Got a US Transit Visa!!!!

Great news!  Bobo has in hand his US transit visa good for transiting through the US for the next 5 years (if he ever wants to travel again after this experience)!  This means that Bobo will be able to make his fourth attempt to return home to Haiti tomorrow afternoon.  His flight will once again take him through Nigeria, followed by Ghana and then through JFK on Friday morning and back to Haiti by Friday at 1 pm EST. The whole SOIL team will be at the airport with bells and whistles and the fully decorated poopmobile! We will be sure to post a video to our Facebook page of his grand entry. For those of you who have been crossing fingers and ...

Bobo back in Cotonou… again

Dear Friends and Supporters, I wanted to write to share an update with those of you who have been following Bobo’s situation as he tries to get back to Haiti from Benin. As some of you may have seen from our Facebook page, Bobo made it to Nigeria only to be returned once again to Cotonou as he did not have the appropriate transit visa for the US. We were informed by the travel agency that he would not need a transit visa as his stay in JFK was only two hours but learned that we were mistaken and he does indeed need to obtain a transit visa, even for such a short stay within the airport. Sadly, Bobo did have to spend yet another night in an ...

Warm Welcome in Mukuru

Thanks to Kui Mungai (pictured at left) and SANERGY for their warm welcome in Mukuru, and their kind words after! In her article "Kindred Composting Spirits: A Visit from Haiti," Kui was enthusiastic about meeting Sasha and Anthony and sharing ideas, strategies, and knowledge about composting human wastes. Below is an excerpt from the post: "In mid-May, SANERGY welcomed Sasha Kramer and Anthony Kilbride of SOIL to our field site in Mukuru. We thought we were crazy about human waste until we meet up with Sasha and Anthony – they adore waste! SOIL (Sustainable Organic Integrated Livelihoods) is an organization based in Haiti that converts human waste ...

On our way home?

This is the day.  Bobo and I are in the final stretch of preparing for his long awaited voyage home to Haiti.  Today at 3 pm Bobo will be on a plane to Nigeria and then on to Ghana from there to JFK and then back home to Haiti by noon tomorrow if all goes according to plan. It has been a wild week with allsorts of twists and turns in the plans.  In the end we were honored and amazed that National Geographic came to our rescue.  We should have known all along to reach out to them, given that they are such a reputable organization and that they were the official sponsors of our work here.  I think we were just feeling so lost and dismayed during ...

Bobo is Out of the Hospital but Not Out of the Woods

To our dear friends and supporters, We are in awe of the outpouring of support that we have received from people around the world who have been holding Bobo in their hearts over the past week.  It is now midnight in Benin but I wanted to take a moment to update everyone on this ever evolving nightmare. First the good news, and it is very good…Bobo was released from the hospital today and is now resting at a lovely German guesthouse.  His platelet levels are still low and he will be taking medication for the next few weeks to ensre that the parasites are completely out of his system.  Bobo was diagnosed with falciporum malaria with a parasire ...

SOIL Returns to Its Roots

SOIL Explores the World’s Largest EcoSan Project and Reunites with Heroes Co-written by Sasha Kramer and Anthony Kilbride See all the photos from South Africa on SOIL's Flickr page. Sasha: SOIL Returns to It's Roots Seven years ago, in a country more than 7000 miles from Haiti the seeds that would later become SOIL were carefully collected. I had first visited South Africa in 2005 before starting SOIL and it was that visit that inspired my passion for ecological sanitation.  During that first visit I attended an ecological sanitation conference in Durban where I had the honor of meeting some of the leaders in the field of converting waste into ...