19 results for tag: Africa
Bobo Has Malaria
Bobo is back in Cotonou, Benin. His story is long and thus far not happy: After two attempts at leaving Benin to make the long journey back to Haiti, Bobo finally reached Madrid on Friday, only to be denied his onward journey to Havana. We are still trying to confirm details of why his trans-atlantic flight was denied, but it seems to be the fault of the airline, Air Europa, who claimed he did not have a ticket, even though we have all the valid documentation to prove the contrary. Without passage to Havana, Bobo was sent back to Cotonou by Royal Air Marok, via an exhausting and traumatic 24 hours in Casablanca airport. Bobo arrived back to Cotonou ...
Help Bobo Get Home
Today is Haitian Flag day and as Haitian's everywhere celebrate their proud history, SOIL's sanitation director, Baudeler Magloire ("Bobo"), is stuck in an airport in Morocco. PLEASE HELP HIM GET HOME TO HAITI - DONATE USING THE FORM ON THE RIGHT Many of you who have been following SOIL's recent blog posts about Africa know that, thanks to a grant from National Geographic, SOIL has spent the past 3 weeks working in collaboration with several women's group in northern Benin. The most amazing part of this trip was that Bobo was able to travel to Benin to share his experience in Haiti in the country of his ancestors. Bobo was responsible for all ...
May 2012 Newsletter: South Africa, Haiti, Sanitation and Friends
Dear friends of SOIL, I am writing to you from South Africa where I have been exchanging ideas with Durban's municipal authority who are currently operating the world's largest ecological sanitation project. I have learned so much from this exchange and am so grateful to all of the organizations, individuals and government representatives who have warmly received us. I have also been deeply inspired by the realization that, though there are many laudable projects happening throughout the world, SOIL's work remains at the cutting edge of the field. Our emergency sanitation projects uniquely provide a safe and ecological option to displaced communiti...
SOIL Visit to EAA, Ouagadougou
This is one story from a multi-part series on SOIL's adventures in Africa. After a successful morning with the women of Dunkassa, Sasha, Bobo and I, accompanied by our ADESCA colleagues Zachary and Guninen, embarked on a road trip to Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso. The purpose of our trip was to visit the African water and sanitation organization EAA / WSA (Eau et Assainisement pour Africa / Water and Sanitation for Africa), formerly known as CREPA. Sasha had first heard of the work of CREPA in 2005 whilst at an EcoSan conference in Durban, South Africa, and SOIL had long benefitted from their research and from their online publications. ...
Back Into the Toilet
This is one story from a multi-part series on SOIL's adventures in Africa. Our wonderful adventures in the depths of abandoned pit latrines continued this week with yet another descent into the old school latrine in Kalale Benin. Our small SOIL team of myself, Baudeler (Bobo) Magloire and Anthony Kilbride, came to Benin one week ago to collaborate with a local organization ADESCA by sharing our ecological sanitation experience in Haiti in an effort to help make women’s community gardens in several rural communities more profitable. For the past several years these women have been working with ADESCA and their international partner SELF to ...
A truly magical experience from the Magic Toilet!
And now to put ecosan to the test... (This is one story from a multi-part series on SOIL’s adventures in Africa.) After our successful trial of exhuming beautiful compost from the Kalale school latrine on Wednesday, we had today the real test of our trip to Benin: to convince the women of the Bessassi garden community that they might want to create their own magic toilet, and use its compost (produced from their poop) in their own garden: No mean feat! The omens for a successful and convincing sensibilisation session were not all good as the previous day’s sanitation survey in Bessassi, by Bobo and Sasha, was not particularly encouraging. The ...
Yon pelerinaj Asenisman mennen yon nouvèl dekouvèt nan listwa / Travel brings new discoveries in history
This is one story from a multi-part series on SOIL's adventures in Africa. English version below Mwen te vwayaje pandan twa jou tout lannwit poum te rive nan peyi benin dafrik e mwen te pase plizyè peyi tankou panama, kiba, lespay, mawòk, togo jis mwen te rive nan bout tè peyi benin dafrik. Objektif pwensipal vizit sa nan benin dafrik se te pou yon pataj eksperyans nan domenn sanitasyon ekolojik ak yon oganizasyon beninwaz ki rele ADESCA ki chita nan komin kalale nan benen e rive travay ak oganizasyon fanm nan 2 vilaj anndan kalale se : Besasi ak Dounkasa ki se 2 kominote riral. Denpi lè mwen te rive nan ayewopò Mawomèd 5 nan Mawòk mwen te ...
SOIL in Africa Part 2: Into the Toilet
This is one story from a multi-part series on SOIL's adventures in Africa. Today we had one of the highlights of our professional careers, or at least it was one of my finest hours. In an attempt to demonstrate the possibility of converting human waste into compost the SOIL team, together with our hosts ADESCA, paid a visit to the local primary school. But this was not your usual school visit. We were looking for proof that human wastes can be transformed into soil, and what better place to find that proof than deep in the ground in an old latrine. Because the conversion of poop to soil can take at least a year, and we are only here in Benin ...
SOIL in Africa!
This is one story from a multi-part series on SOIL's adventures in Africa. For the next 3 weeks a SOIL team will be working in Benin, learning more about the culture here and constructing the first of 3 ecological toilets in a rural area in the northern region of Kalale in collaboration with a local organization ADESCA and their international partner SELF. This trip is thanks to the Blackstone Ranch Institute which offers a challenge grant for the most innovative new projects proposed by two or more National Geographic Emerging Explorers. This year the grant went to Sasha Kramer of SOIL, Jennifer Burney who works with SELF on solar powered irriga...