HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Goderich Signal-Star, 1974-09-19, Page 174
31 Dee. 1y 0987 654
Pubs. i,e library,
52, Montreal" St., �
God.er oh t Ont. 7
7 �
U
01
give fresh water
a at Christmas
to M�Lep!
• A former • Signal -Star
• reporter -photographer
Ron Shaw is in Africa at
•the present moment
Working on a Canadian
. Hunger Foundation
project near Maradi, As
most persons who kneW
Ron here can appreciate,
Ron's enthusiasm for life
and living often involves
him i.n many activities
which are not ` on the
regular workday agenda.
In his 'new work area,
primative hand dug wells are well at Melepba is fouled."
'
giving out. Well one could hardly argue
The water is still there but it with t'he' logic and Tim had
is suspended in sandy mud. No learned, as we all do, that there
matter how often, or diligently, is -little point in arguingabout
the local villagers attempt to honesty with a Fulani.
clean their well the mud just Especially when survival -is. at
keeps sliding in, clogging the stake.
Half in an effort to avoid an
unpleasant confrontation; and
half -out of curiosity, Tim accep-
or so which could inexpensively'' ted an invitation from them
clean the Melepba well, and so.Melepha chief, Gabo, to meet
° many others like it. But that him the next .day and discuss
will come later. First let me tell the well'problem.
Kon
well bottom.
A proposed system has been
developed over the past month
has discovered a a little "more about the people At that meeting Tim first,,
r' and 'circumstances behind this heard of the 'difficulties beset -
problem with fresh water •
supplies for a tribe of proposal. ,ting .,the Melepba well and
p • �'
Fulani. Knowing that My present"missionrin Africa many others like, it. In the most
water is a basic necessity • as a representative •of the ' diplomatic terms p i e cdourtd
for survival, Ron is deter-
mined to• see' the present
clogged and unproductive
well cleaned and in ser-
vice once again.
The following -'article
. outlines clearly his. plans .
for re-establishing the
well at M,efepb9. But the
project will take a modest
amount`.of money`to
realize success,
NBelieving„' there are '
• e u-gh 'p.eople in
Goderich who would be
ready, willing and able to
help with this worthwhile,
project, the Sighal-Star is
assisting Ron and his
wife Peg by offering them
publicity for 'their' story
and adding support to
Canadian -non-government think of Tim exp aine o
(NGO) organization "The Gambo that the Fulanis hadn't.
Canadian Hunger •Foundation” , exactly been on the level with
(CHF) is two fold. their ,story . of. the previous
Firstly . as a genetic evening, but he offered to look
technician I have been assigned into . the ...question • of' getting
to the Centre D'Elevage Caprin Melepba a new, well..Nd
A Maradi to assist ' in the New wells costa great deal of
establishment of a „testing money, nearly $8,000 for one as
system through. which selective deep as that, at Melepba. No
breeding can .be .carried .out : one had the resources but Tim
with dairy goats. Secondly I am kept discussing 'the question
responsible for providing ' with anyone who would give
assistance to Nigerian non- him a hearing and Gambo
government ^ groups in would walk 20 kilometersto
developing middle and . long the road,, paY 150 francs for a
term development projects. My seat on 'a truck, and visit Tirn
work on the Melepba proposal for. .a report of progress -every
falls under the second category month or so. This went on --for
of responsibility. -- , nearly a year, and is indeed
On • our .arrival in' IVIarad'i,,, still going on.
where we now live, my wife and , When ,I arrived in Maradi,
their selfless request. I were warmly welcomed into a representing an agency." willing.
Ron pots it this way: "1 ° rather small Canadian ex- ., to examine possible projects in
•
really believeit's a ,very patriate' community. At that
this area, Tim outlined the
•deserving•projbct and one a time ,it consisted of two people, story of the Melepba we1jj In
that t hee _.< p e.0 p l„e of Tim Hildebrant and his wife addition to helping Gambo the
Goderich could really see . a Dr, Muriel Van Lierop ,of idea seemed ' to. have
,what their • dollars -Toronto. Withour arrival the possibilities in terms of a larger
achieved."' ,. Cankadian contingent numbered scale 'project` which would
r?
Here's Ron's story, if of . font- but since then_ another ,"''.revitalize several of these wells..,
ter reading it you should`" Canadian • has settled; here as ' Perhaps the Melepba ,well
decide' you would like to well. could serve as a pilot project. A
help, you • can make a While his wife is' employed trip to 'the bush was a`rra,nged '
donation at the Bank of , on contract with the Nigerian so I could ' examine the well
Montreal here_ in. `government' to work at a fi'xst hand and talk with
Goderich by . making a mother -baby clinic, Tim came Gambo.
'deposit t'o The Melepba out to join one of those corn-,
Well account. mon projects which just never
This fund will be han- got started. Rather than do
ddled through 'The.
Goderich Signal -Star arid
will remain open until
about . m:id-November
when money will, be 1,6r -
warded 't't,,reugh •the
Canadian. -Hunger Foun-
dation to .Ron and Peg.
' Hopefully,' the Melepba
well can be in Use, by'`
Christmas.
Why' not put The
The cement rings are to be fabricated or the site by vtlunteer workmen. The rings will be per-
forated with holes on such art angle that .t lets water in but not out. They are construotQd from
cement and re -enforced with steel, Each ring is also fitted with brackets for lifting and for use
in bolting them together.
nothing he helped out wherehe
could, mostly with the Sudan • • Maradi in the early afternoon
Interior Mission (SIM), and by by market truck and traveled
so doing became an adoptive north on the Dakoro , road
Fulani of sorts. During the two about 25 kilometers: • No mere
'years he has livid in Niger Tim ' words can describe that trip,
has lived in the bush with the although the return trip' was
Fulani clans for as much as' a - ` worse when the driver jammed
month at a time. During the 20 adults, two babies, some
course of these prolonged visits chickens; two goats, and
he becarn'e involved with_. the • probably a lot of other, things `T
CRIQUS TRIP
A few days later ,,we' left •
.Melepba well. . couldn't see, into the back of a
Melepba Well on your That 'first encounter,: was Peugot 404 (aboutthe size of a,
Chr }• as list? 6,, nearly, a year ago when the full' Toyota pickup). ` With few
' effect of a six year drought was regrets ,:,we left 'thetruck at
bearing' down on the Fulani Tumboarowa, 'where 'Gumbo
BY RON SHAW nation.. While he lived Iii a p had arranged for camels -to
• ass
K saws camp- The watched. meet us, and started out across
I first visited Melepba their cattle, hundreds of them . the 20 kilometers of,desert that
several months ago, before the die eti mass, littering the desert lay• between the road and
Melepba.
hate in the , around the camp with rotting
rains began. Now, tin '
rainy season, it looks much ° Excepting a case of"almostdif- carcasses. With their final p g'
`recent an it i en means•o
than did then but soon 'f support falling prey to terminal saddle -sores, the trip
of huts in the a vultures, expanse of sand
it wi
11'again•
b merely a cluster the Kasasawa' like but most en=
was uneventful
dozens of of -tier Fulani clans, jo yable, giving
me one of my
- ..
anfirst opportunities to see thed heat stunted brush. that watched starvation begin We rode
makes up the Sae -an most . sta ing their c •
"° One evening, as meal time dawn the, last' slope into still producing with 'minimal maintenance.
of 'Niger. .. fashion (at a dead
you approach. vena from e,.
t of .camel's
•
Munger Foundation
officerapproves
Melepba project
The ring is rolled to the edge of the well and then looped with a chain='t9'help tip it over. The
•a
white chap standing . to the extreme right is Tim Hildebrandt.
Ono the ring is set on its bottoms the lifting- gear . is bolted to the steel brackets. Each ring
weighs approximately one half a metric ton and' must be moved by means of. a block and
tackle. '
Dear Mrs. Keller: •
I am forwarding this story at the request Of Ron Shaw. As
,,you know,, Ron and 'Peggy' are working in Niger ona,project
pa„nsnred by: the. CanadiancHunger l!'oundation•.;Ron men-
tioned in a recent letter that you might be interested in star-
ting a fund-raising campaign for a worthy project.
Ron's story describes, one which we, are presently con
sidt ring. Of course, finding financial support is one of the
major obstacles in getting ourprograms off -the -ground.
Should you be interested in .undertaking a fund-raising cam
paign to support the, Melepba Well project, the CHF would
be very apprecie,tive.
If there is any information which you would like to receive
concerning 'the Canadian Hunger 'oundatlon a 4. its ac-'
tivities, please do not hesitate to
Having recently returned from tl tour of CHF protects in
Africa, including Niger, I remain Most affected b>
desperate need of the Sahelian c'ouutrie�- fur development
assistance. One of their most fundamental requirements is,
of course, an adequate water supply for their people and'
livestock. •' .
I feel that a program of reactivating non-functioning wells
would ' be sensible and pragmatic way of tackling this
,. problem. While I _ was in Maradi, I visited, the 'site of the
proposed Melepba. Well project and talked 'to the people'
whom Ron ,rnentions in his article.
They 'impressed me as very imaginative and capable in-
dividuals.
Should you participate in this' project, you could be
'assured that your assistance would be of direct benefit to the
people of Niger.
out -back of Niger.This photo shows a completed well in use. This
Sahel d t lk' th ' amp
Mete ba in out best Lawrence
Melepba, right,. at this approached, Tim .began to won p.
.° f Arabia f
particular well is
"' moment, is hardly visable as der at the sudden appearance :of
and knelt our camels in Looking back it really wasn't of the well. After" several!hours
� f th•
vantage point a ll d received the full Houssa treat -
guinea lived for
back s Y t honored guests
of millet, fresh meat, eggs an
fowl. The Pulanis were : Chief Gambo's compound. We all that bad. Since then, having of repeated' gquestioning,
Q a short time in various . however, I had compiled my
some six" feet off .the b this time, ,as `they still
o, ,
1 camps, I've had to eat first working sketch.
ground, one does not see the existing on "millet porrage al'bne ' merit as most
Fu anv c p. ,
t p , f meat and a goat was killed to mark and drink much worse. As for, • I might just note that the
community, the mosquito larva � 11 1
nestled , in its and
the .a pearance o ° and frogs location for the 'we was se ec-
surr-ounding acres of Millet and eggs and soon was out of h Despite gg
place: the occasion,
the chief s hci'nest ef- e s I have learned to simply ted by a witch doctor. I asked if
Maize, until you are there.
there has been a sig ' fi -
amount of ,precipitation in the
Sahel, that semi -arid region
which stretches r. across the
southern reaches of the Sahara.
The crops are good, there .have
ben few locust as .yet,' and if
their luck -holds out the people
of this area will eat during the
Corning dry season.`
But for Melepba, and hun-
• dreds of villages like it in south
For the first time irnsix Years
sign
cantt•-
Upon inquiring into the -
strange return of events, he fort and best -intentions I can't regard those as a protein sue- ..
say much for the food, The goat plement.,But the water did give
discovered that one of, the• mea full app
d d � oath �being reci�ati�on of the °
told the,' chief of nearby cooked (and I happen to be one serious situation the village
,told
that Tim was a
of those uncivilized people races regarding its well. When
foreign aid worker visitif'g Q who can't eat anything unless 'the rains, are over there won't
to '�'exaniine the its well done and then some.) even be swamp water to drink.
scamp, j That night 'one of C=annho's
possibilities of digging a well. The millet was starchyand just
In an effort oto impress the generally unpleasant and we wives must have been honored
would�be benefactor the- ,tucked up too many rotten3eggs by his presence because we
Houssa's were sending him ,,."in the batch they hard boiled slept in his hut and he went
gifts, including a 'goat.' ' . for us to eat any with much elsewhere. What 'about break`
•relish. • - 4 fast? Mere of the same.
Tim �p%otested; 4 pointing out 11 the fare could have; Next `morning we went to
Fulanis, his guide Altini, had i n t even appy
1 Th Overs
,. ,�i ight, talk vvtith him but was
inferrned he had died a few'
years before. Gambo, being .a
nominal, Christian, thought- rt
funny when' I asked if he hall
died of thirst.
Ori ".ny second_ visit to
Melepba I was accompanied,hy
my project ,Officer from the
CHF, Susan McCoy, who stop-
ped off in Niger on her rettirn
home from a tour of 1 olir
projects in East Africa. In an
• tra %tiger - having full that it wasn't ,true at all, (' e a a red one must eat gauge gnas•is only half the b purpose ofh Cook t the well and efftift' to au e effect if t e
gransorit?ethtng. The water though. spent considerable airne talking
� le
centre) , • d be ' - worse a have a ,.
battle. his visit
to the in Y 'Melepba well' were repaired,
A severe shortage of water is Fulani camp had nothing to do who
a threat towith wells.) Altini, in his glib was another question. Since the with' Gambo (using Tim, she asked how many people
esenting as large'sneaks-Houssa„ as interpreter) lived in the village.
° e• "h�1},l�i and life as the past six manner which I have :come to, welt is not'functioning, � •
drinking water° was scooped about the spi'�iiblern. ` i n� r d For po�>r Gambo that
•
years of famine ever did. The know " well, agreed "'that of g end
involves riot so course it wasn't true but said from stagnant ponds left by the. Gambo can neither r of question posed a bit of a
problet invo rains which were then just star• write; has n o system
vailabailit of water, but he failed to see the relevancy of to drink like a ret save arty hre•ad� ^ problem, but he attz3ked it
the a With the lowering h the' or not it was a lie Cine.' We ;had measurem`e n �, with a will. Usin ' stokes picked
li t little it
nearly 20 years of age but is
names ;of all his villagers and
dropping a pebble in the pile to
represent each one• He then
presented the pile announcing
"this many." .
liar count showed about 300
but that does not take into ac- '
count an estimated equalnnum-
ber of nomads, mostly Fulani,
who live nearby and would
ma
Combining Gamho's infor-
matjtitS, and other information
I ohtafned from aid .workers
• who hih e dig wells in the same
area, the,,situation is as follows:.
The well is• about 150 feet
•
dee`) . ' As it was being, dug the
wi)r.ker's ,•°went -through six
layers of rock. Gambo showed
me . a piece and it is a sort of
sandstone. When they went
through the sixth layer, `tit
About 130 feet, they struck the
winter hearing: layer which in=
RECIPE FOR
A WEEK.
access to it, w e r ths, and can count very i
of the water table, ' which "If we tell them you are here horse, through our feet , o was difficult to r'i?construct the up from the *round he assem'= page t out the mosquito, Parva bl' d l h reciting the(continued on pa a 2A)
re
dr
salted from six yeisrs of to dig a well," he explained, attain Po 4 e a pile y reef in
they will feed as because their and frogs' egg§• - history and geological retitures .- p .4.1
ought, old art, rather <<
Yours sincerely,
• Susan McCoy
Project Officer - Africa: ,
Pictures and story
by Ron Shaw
direct from M ara di d
Here the workers are tipping the rirtg onto the steel rails
before if is slid over the well mouth. These 'pictures, were
taken near t1ie village of Gera-Touha where the Sudan In-
terior Mis$ion was installing a well. °
0.
The ring is li`oisted above the well
lowered so that it aligns with the ring
the brackets line up for bolting. M
,ticular'ring is the final` cshe'to be,•pnut'
mouth, then carefully
beneath it and so that
you will see this par -
in place on this well.
�cw
v