When I was in Freetown in April I visited Esther’s school in Waterloo. There are about 100 children attend the school which is constructed of mud blocks, which is in a poor state of repair and not enough classroom furniture for all the children. BUT the thing that really got to me was that there were NO toilets !!

They had already started to dig a soakaway pit but as they had no money to go any further the pit was beginning to be used as a rubbish tip. I asked them to get a price for building the tank and said I would see what I could do to help them, but didn’t promise anything. The pit has now been cleared of rubbish and completed and they are in the process of making the concrete blocks to build the tank with some initial funds that I have sent them.

The pit measures approximately 12 feet x 6 feet and is 14 feet deep!! The pit was dug by hand, well pick axe and shovel, and all the spoil was brought out using a bucket and rope system – not a JCB in sight ! The pit is approximately 28 cubic metres and they removed about 35 tons of soil – ALL BY HAND.