Harvard Black Men Empowering African Village

Cambridge, Mass, March 12, 2008 - The Harvard Black Men’s Forum (BMF) has recently launched an initiative to establish a sustainable clean water source to a rural village in Ghana. Its Project Access to Clean Water for Agyemanti (ACWA) is well underway after only a few months of research, planning, and fundraising under the leadership of Harvard sophomores Sangu Delle (BMF Brotherhood Chair) and Darryl Finkton.

According to a 2004 World Health Organization (WHO) report, Diarrhea-related diseases account for 1.8 million deaths per year worldwide. This disease burden falls overwhelmingly on children of developing countries and is primarily due to an unsafe water supply, sanitation, and hygiene. In Ghana alone, these risk factors contribute to 8,600 deaths per year and the highest burden of disease from environmental factors. Providing clean water is one of the eight Millennium Development Goals of the WHO.

Project ACWA is seeking to specifically address this pressing problem in the village of Agyemanti – one of several rural villages in Ghana in which a large portion of the population has no access to safe water or means of sanitation and hygiene. This project model is different from similar charitable causes for Africa because “It’s sustainable and holistic,” Delle says. “Not only are we going to track its long-term progress leading to drastic improvements in public health, but we’re going to empower the people of Agyemanti through health education and the development of the necessary financial tools to maintain the water supply in a way that doesn’t deprive the poorest members.”

Both Delle, a native of Ghana, and Finkton saw a need to increase the involvement of students in the global community, especially the African continent, in order to bring much needed attention to those lacking life’s most basic necessities. Like Delle, Finkton sees their project as different because they are employing their version of “creative capitalism,” a term Bill Gates used to describe sustainable ways to fight poverty.

"Our project focuses on people, not numbers.  So many times development and research are confined to GDP changes and quantitative analysis but we want to emphasize changes on a more personal level.  Project ACWA is about increasing capabilities and removing barriers in creative, sustainable ways rather than providing a never ending stream of financial resources.  We are working with the people of Agyemanti to gain access to water, sanitation, and opportunities for all men and women in the village now, and in the future."

Having acquired funding support from Harvard’s W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research and Department of African and African American Studies, Project ACWA is in search of more funds. Delle and Finkton plan on traveling to Ghana in August and September of this year to work with local engineers to install a secure water pump to be tapped into an underground spring. “So we would ideally have all the funding we need by June or July,” Delle adds. “We already have collaborations with WaterAID Ghana, The Ghanaian Ministry of Water Resources, and the endorsement of Nana Osei Boakye Yiadom II (chief of the Aburi region where Agyemanti lies), and we are looking to secure a broader base of partners and support right here at home, and everywhere really.”

Delle estimates some 2,000 people will directly benefit from the new water pump and household latrines which they plan to install as well. This includes the 465 villagers of Agyemanti and others from the surrounding area. To ensure its sustainability, Project ACWA will incorporate health education and equipment maintenance seminars so people understand why and how it should be sustained.

For Harvard’s BMF, Project ACWA comes from a long-held tradition of service to the underserved, which is a per semester requirement for membership. “Rather than observing poverty’s devastating effects in Agyemanti and other regions,” Delle and Finkton believe that “initiatives such as Project ACWA encourage action by exemplifying the differences students can make not only in their own communities, but in the world.”

Sangu Delle is an Economics concentrator at Harvard College and can be reached at sdelle@fas.harvard.edu or 703-226-9609. Darryl Finkton is a Neurobiology concentrator at Harvard College and can be reached at dfinkton@fas.harvard.edu or 317-201-6836