Leading by Example

Recently, the International Lifeline Fund team in Uganda and one of its community-based Water User Committees (WUC) in Lira, were unknowingly put to the test.  Triple S-Uganda, Sustainable Services at Scale, asked the respective organizations in Lira to report on the good practices in place at their water sources.  The ILF sanitation team put together a comprehensive report on the Okello Amuku well, in Akolodong Village. It was a surprise, however, when the Lira District Water and Sanitation Coordination Committee (DWSCC) showed up unannounced at the village to measure its aptitude. 

Fortunately the Akolodong Village Water User Committee was prepared for the challenge. Of the five sources visited, the Okello Amuku well placed at the top of the properly managed sites.

The analysis of Triple S-Uganda’s report uncovered three key aspects that influence effective water source management. The first is active participation from the community members themselves, and a dedicated community-based management team. The appointment of women WUC members also appears to positively affect the productivity as women have more time to dedicate to the committee. The second aspect is the level of training provided to the WUC and the subsequent implementation of those skills. One example is the ability to enforce the by-laws established by the committee which is crucial to maintaining the cleanliness of the water source. Finally, the assessment found that praise and encouragement from outside visitors and monitoring groups is a strong motivating factor for the community to keep up the best practices. All factors were found actively in place at Akolodong Village.

Drilled in 2009, the Okello Amuku water source is accessed by the 156 members of the Akolodong Village. The seven women and men of the Water User Committee are community members, and work to actively engage the whole community in upkeep of the water source; from general cleaning to collecting the requisite contribution of funds from within the community. Additionally, the village has hygiene and sanitation trainers (VHSTs) that work to improve the sanitation practices and general hygiene knowledge both at the water point and the household level. All members of the village have access to proper sanitation devices including seventy-two latrines, twenty-seven bath shelters, twelve drying racks, and three refuse pits. The WUC also strictly upholds the sanitation by-laws that govern access to the water source, deter mismanagement, and fine or suspend the community or committee members that misbehave or soil the water source. Overall, the leaders and water users of Okello Amuku well say they feel encouraged and motivated when the ILF staff visit their water source regularly, and proudly embrace their leadership. 

Is Discomfort With Cultural Difference Preventing the Development Sector From Doing Its Job?

          Over the course of the last week #StopChildMarriage has been trending on Lifeline’s twitter account, no doubt because we mostly follow other NGOs, charities, international agencies, etc.  Today one tweet made me stop and think about what is really driving this trend, and to a greater extent, development work as a whole.  The tweet read, “You could be 15 & married.  Uncomfortable?  Me too.  This is unacceptable.”  This sentiment made me stop and think; are our good intentions for the developing world driven by discomfort with cultural difference?  

            I am certainly not advocating child marriage.  Rather I’m asking, is something unacceptable simply because we’re uncomfortable with it?  More importantly, is this discomfort with a culturally different “big picture issue” preventing us from understanding and addressing the culturally specific root causes of said issue?  It seems unlikely that anyone in the development sector will be able to stop child marriage.  Rather, it seems more likely that child marriage will someday end once the development sector collaborates with each community affected by child marriage to address the root causes of child marriage in that specific community.  Maybe instead of #StopChildMarriage the hashtags could read #GirlChildrenDeserveEqualEducation.

            What does all of this have to do with ILF?  At ILF we know that more than any other factor, the success of any program depends on the community’s willingness to embrace the project. With this in mind, ILF designs a new stove for every community that we work with.  We do this because we want to ensure that each stove that is distributed or sold is culturally appropriate and accepted.  That way, more people will use our stoves and they will use them for longer periods of time.  Then, someday, when enough people have integrated a fuel-efficient stove in to their daily routine, we as an organization can have a positive and substantial impact on curbing deforestation and indoor air pollution.  Our programs hinge on embracing cultural difference so that we can address the “big picture issues” of deforestation, driving force of climate change, and indoor air pollution, killer of 1.9 million people every year. 

            If ILF was less focused on cultural adaptability, our hashtags (if we ever used any…) would read #StopGlobalWarming or #StopPrematureDeathInSubSaharanAfrica.  Sure, these are the issues that we are ultimately trying to address, but more acutely we’re trying to address the underlying issues that make these global crises local realities in specific communities.  We’re glad that we #ReduceBiomassConsumption and #ReduceIndoorSmokeInhalation.  We’re glad that we work with communities to develop culturally derived solutions to global problems.  If we in the development sector could put aside our discomfort with culturally different “big picture issues” then maybe we could work with different cultures and communities to more effectively address the root causes of these global, and yet culturally different, “big picture issues.”

Rachael Reichenbach 

Program Assistant

Washington, DC

A Happy Ending

My name is Ebla and I have been living in Hagadera camp in Dadaab since 1992.  I joined ILF’s rocket stove project in 2008 and I work primarily as a stove maker.  I tie the bricks and do the mudding of the stoves.  I also help out with the monitoring and assessment activities in the blocks.  

Sadly, my time with ILF in Dadaab will soon be coming to a close.  My family and I were accepted into the resettlement program, and will be leaving Dadaab soon for the US.  I’m glad to have been a part of this ILF project as it made me feel quite good being able to help my community and also having this job helped me and my family out financially.  I wish ILF and the Rocket Stove project all the best and hope that it keeps improving the live of the refugees in Dadaab.


Update: Jason Moneiro, the Environmental Program Officer, worked with the refugee staff in Dadaab to write their blog posts in October.  Since then Ebla and her family have been resettled in the US.

Lifeline's Founder in the Field

This past December, I traveled to Uganda and Kenya for three weeks to assess the progress of our programs.  It was my first visit in nearly 18 months.  I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect.  This was my longest absence from the field since Lifeline had launched operations in 2006.  Perhaps I should stay away longer next time.  To paraphrase the President in his speech last week, “the state of the Lifeline union is strong and its future is bright.”


Our operation has never been more professional, our productivity never so great, our team never more efficient, its morale never so high.  Our new country director in Uganda, the incomparable Amandine Desaunay, has worked hard to empower our local staff and to instill in them a sense of pride in their work and their mission.  The change in atmosphere was palpable and goes a long way to explain the progress we have made since Ama took charge of the office in April of last year.  A couple illustrations should provide some sense of what I mean.


First, about two months before my arrival, our office administrator, Rhembo Nyanga, nearly lost his leg and severely injured his arm in a terrible on-the-job motorcycle accident.  Just a couple of days after having been released from the hospital, Rhembo somehow managed to summon the strength to show up at our office Christmas party, where I met him for the first time.  I told him how sorry I was about his accident, but Rhembo would hear none of it.  He was just thankful to be back with his team.  He spoke glowingly of his work for Lifeline and told me he couldn’t wait to get back on the job after the New Year.  I didn’t want to dampen his enthusiasm by telling him he was being unrealistic – with Rhembo confined to a wheelchair, his leg and arm in a cast and a great deal of rehabilitation ahead of him, I saw no way that he could possibly make it back that soon.  Turns out Rhembo (or is that Rambo?) was right.  I was wrong and we are all absolutely delighted to have him back.


The second incident I want to relay concerns our drilling team.  A couple months prior to my arrival in Uganda, the team had begun work on a Charity Water grant under which Lifeline committed to produce 55 boreholes within 12 months’ time.  Unfortunately, the project had not gotten off to a very smooth start – owing to very loose clay formation in the area we were drilling our first couple attempts failed and then, to make matter worse, we lost a vital piece of equipment – a drilling hammer – which got stuck some 50 meters below the surface. As a result, we fell behind in our work by about six weeks.  But, for the members of the drilling team this was not acceptable. They insisted on working over the Christmas holiday (when our office is closed) and I am delighted to report that, by now, they are all but
caught up and we are on track to finish the project on time.


These are just two of many highlights from my trip.  Others include the substantial progress we have made in Uganda toward the acquisition of carbon financing for our stove program and the vote of confidence we have received from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Kenya, which is anxious for us to get registered so that they can fund the expansion of our projects along the Somali border of that country.  I could go on and on, but I think this should give you a pretty good idea of the positive direction things are moving in here at Lifeline.  Stay tuned for more exciting developments.


Dan Wolf 
Executive Director and Lifeline Founder
Washington, DC

Labeja Joins ILF

March 15^th 2010 at 9:00am was my first day to start work with ILF as the  Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) Program Manager in Lira Uganda.

I entered into office and there was no one to hand the program over to me.  I did not know anybody and I did not have anything to start with but suddenly a lady entered my office with some files and said: “How are you Michael?!”  She introduced herself as Alison, the Program Manager for the fuel–efficient stove program and introduced me to others in the office.  Before she left she gave me instructions for the work that I was to be doing.

The file she gave me was full of applications for drilling team recruitment and with instructions from the former Country Director to shortlist and interview for the new drilling team.  I said woo!  Is that the situation?  I was excited to have that kind of responsibility.  I put myself down to work and managed the shortlist. Now I have found that it was a very good thing to find and hire a new team to work with because a new manager with a new drilling team brings new thinking.

 Uganda Country Director Amandine Desaunay, Deputy Director Vahid Jahangiri,

and members of Labeja's recruited drilling team conducting a pump test on a borehole.

Ho! I tell you, I later realized that the team that I had recruited is the best! They are very hard working, experienced, motivated and results oriented.  I was happy to have my team but I was frustrated by the numbers of wells to drill.  We were supposed to have 28 wells completed within three months; I couldn’t believe how much work we had cut out for us!  At the time it was a nightmare but in four months 32 wells were drilled and completed.

 Community members with one of the 32 completed boreholes.

ILF is a very interesting organization to work with, I am free to plan and decide on my own for my program and I am very happy. If you are a manager in ILF, you are not a manager only by title who waits for someone to direct you or take over everything; you have to have initiative and creativity.  I think I have made the right decision to join ILF and I have no regrets.

Long live ILF, Long live Dan and all staff of ILF elsewhere in the world. 

Michael Labeja

WASH PM

Lira, Uganda

The Joy and Beauty of Clean Water

Take the time to watch this truly moving and beautiful video from ILF's Brian Martin.  In it you will see firsthand the process, and ultimate joy, of providing access to a clean water source in Northern Uganda.  Brian first began his work with ILF in Uganda and is currently in Haiti designing a new stove prototype for ILF's household fuel-efficient stove program.  Read his latest blog from the field here.  It is so easy in our busy day-to-day lives to lose sight of what brings us joy and what is really important in this world.  This video serves as a wonderful reminder.

Article in Good Magazine

ILF is extremely excited to be featured in Good Magazine's series about energy and the environment!  You can find the article here.  Please feel free to tweet, blog, facebook, e-mail, and generally share this great article with your friends, family, and coworkers.  More information about our work in Haiti, Kenya, and Uganda can be found at our website http://www.lifelinefund.org.

One of Lifeline's stoves in action.  Notice the traditional stove 

next to it, unused and unloved!