For some time now, Guyinda village, a community located around Idu Karimo in Abuja, has been experiencing serious water challenges. But a few days ago, the story changed and now they boast of potable water with the intervention of corps members who donated a manual borehole to them.
The three Batch B corps members in the Federal Capital Territory dug and donated the manual borehole to the community which identified potable water as its major challenge. They also trained some of the women on how to make beads and liquid soaps, among other things.
The trio, Haruna Amina, Owoeye Ebun and Haruna Blessing disclosed that they were inspired by boredom and their Community Development Service (CDS) Coordinator who announced the idea of rendering a personal community development service.
Aisha, who spoke to Abuja Review on behalf of the three corps members said: “I felt a bit bored at work because there wasn’t so much work in my place of primary assignment (PPA) and it was not taxing. So, I said to myself if this is how the whole one year will be, I will find something to do. So, I decided to invite my friends who had already shown interest in doing something that will benefit other people.”
Continuing, she said: “When we got to the village, the main thing the village head told us was their need for water. Before we dug the borehole, their source of water was a river. We had to provide them with drinking water. All other projects were just something to complement the main one.
“At first, they demanded an electric borehole but we felt it does not make sense because of the cost of fuelling a generator in case there is no light. Since they don’t have light there, what will happen when there is fuel scarcity? Also, they are villagers who find it difficult to eat. How would they get money to fuel a generator? It does not make any sense. That was why we decided to sink the manual borehole,” she added.
On how they will maintain the borehole, the Village Chief, Chief Michael Agashi who was represented by Mr. Chinkobo promised to assign the youth head to be in charge of the borehole, even as he said they would hold meetings from time to time to know if the borehole has any problem so that they will contribute money to effect repairs on it.
He said: “We are grateful for what these ladies have done for us. Our kids will no longer wake up by 4:00 a.m. to rush to the stream for water.”
The Chief, who appealed to government to dig more boreholes in the village also called on corps members to be posted to the primary school located in the village.
Miss Haruna further explained that interested women were picked to participate in skill acquisition.
“We had one-on-one interview with them before they were selected to participate in the skill acquisition. This is because we didn’t want a scenario where we will train them with our meager resources and it will end as a waste.”
She added that “we are buying start-up materials for five bead-making participants and 10 liquid soap-making participants.
“I think health is everybody’s concern. We all fall sick; we all take medicine, we all drink water, and mosquitoes don’t choose who to bite. We were also able to conduct public health seminar on maternity, infant care, hypertension and the distribution of 100 pieces of mosquito nets,” she said.
