This project has been completed under the direction of Peace Corps Volunteer Willow Denker. To read about the beginning of the project, CLICK HERE.
The project was to build a toilet at the dispensary.
Willow reports:
The Silimoli ‘Team of Five’ has accomplished their goal of creating a clean, working toilet for the Silimoli dispensary on Nguna Island. It has been many years since they have had a usable toilet for patients and they are quite proud of their work. The patients have been impressed and grateful as well.
On Oct 4th, supplies and materials needed for the toilet project were purchased at Port Vila Hardware. On the 9th the team met and dug a square pit 1.5 m x 1.5 m x1.6 m deep offset to the side of the building and connected by pipe. On the 14th the wood and cement and pipe were delivered to the Dispensary and then the drums were delivered on the 15th.
The group met again and built the door and reinforced the walls and floor of the existing structure and set the toilet seat. On the 22rd they removed the tops and bottoms of the 44 gal drums and punctured multiple holes in the sides. They also got 3 truckloads of rocks and laid them around the drums. The ventilation pipe was positioned and they mixed the cement slap over the top. On the 23rd, a very rainy day, we applied calico along the walls of the small house, painted our thank you sign to yufala and took photos.
During the month, the work progressed in spurts of activity, as there was a wedding in the village and the deliveries took a while. Most of the work happened when everyone showed up for 3 full days of work with a meal together. Then Chief Taripoamara and the new construction leader, Elder Samson, (Takot got sick) took care of the day-to- day details and organizing for truckload of rocks, sand and coral.
The end result of the Silimoli Toilet Project is a clean, functional toilet and septic system that the Silimoli Staff and patients are glowing over. Staff and neighbors of Silimoli Dispensary are giving a huge sigh of relief as they realize that the pressure is off of them to provide these facilities. John Tonny of the Team of Five said that it has been over 5 years since the bush toilet was functional. “Finally, we have our first toilet that has a reliable septic system” said the Chief.
The 6,000 vt that was saved in the construction will go into their next project, the purchase of a 6,000 liter polyethylene water tank. I believe that their success with this project and the gratitude that they will continue to hear from patients and community has helped build their capacity and confidence to continue to improve their health care center and offer better, more sanitary health care in general.
With your generous donation and their great teamwork we have created a great model for organizing and completing development projects on the island of Nguna as well as provided an essential service to staff and patients.
Tank yiu tumas!
We are grateful to Willow for completing this project, and again thank Michael and Carla Boyle for providing the funding.