Download the Quaterly issue of ACTED Asia’s Newsletter (issue #3)

Category: Newsletters June 27th, 2008

ACTED has been active in the region of Murghab (the mountainous area of the Pamirs in eastern Tajikistan) since 1999 and has been implementing projects aiming at the improvement of social and economic situation of the area.

The reconstruction of the remote school in Shaimak is strongly needed

ACTED has recently launched a new initiative, funded by the Japanese Embassy, aiming at the rehabilitation of school building in the very remote village of Shaimak. This small and isolated village has only 729 inhabitants, mainly belonging to the ethnic Kyrgyz. Its position is clearly a great disadvantage: it is located 135 kilometers away from the Murghab town and 455 kilometers from Khorog, the two main towns of the area, and its access roads are often made impassable by terrible weather conditions. Winter being extremely hard, the reconstruction of the school building is an essential intervention in order to allow 130 students and another 60-70 youth coming from outlying villages to study in acceptable conditions.

Category: News June 1st, 2008

Sudan: Improvement of Food Security in vulnerable zones of South Sudan through seed distribution: Jur River County, in the State of Western Bahr El Gazal

Donor: French Embassy

Project code: 23 AAM 5M

In April, ACTED Sudan launched a nine month food security project in Jur River County to increase quality food production for vulnerable families, improve agricultural techniques and nutrition, and raise farmers’ income. Direct benefi ciaries of the program include 3,000 families, reaching approximately 18,000 people. The project’s activities include the creation of 200 agro groups made up mostly of the marginalised and returnees women, as well as the distribution of diversifi ed seed kits to each group. 15 demonstration plots will also be established to assist in trainings on farming and production techniques. A formal agricultural training program will be established and will include topics such as organic agriculture, seed selection, conservation, income generation, and nutrition. The program will also train certain beneficiaries to become agricultural educators, thus expanding the community’s knowledge base. Finally, 15 fi elds for seed harvesting will be developed and two seed markets established to stimulate local farmers’ income generation.

Category: Uncategorized June 1st, 2008

Tugala Oyo and Moro’o are among the most isolated and poor of sub-districts in Nias. Even before the 2004 Tsunami and 2005 earthquake, the area was characterised by severe poverty. The earthquake exacerbated difficulties as the little infrastructure that existed was damaged or destroyed. In February 2008, ACTED Indonesia opened a new base in sub district Moro’o on Nias Island to facilitate the village development project funded by Caritas Austria. ACTED manages the project’s road construction component as well as the construction of a new community school.

The 2-3 metres wide road is being built using a Telford technique, which is a prepared and levelled road base with a stone surface. Because the project site is criss-crossed with drainage channels and small rivers, a number of bridges and culverts are required to maintain drainage and ensure the road surface isn’t damaged in heavy rain. They also secure access to the community even during bad weather, when river flooding can block access to vehicles for days at a time.

Building permanent drainage infrastructure is extremely expensive, and was not possible within the available project budget. Instead, ACTED is installing semi-permanent bridges and culvert structures using locally available coconut timber. These structures are usually small, with a span of approximately 2 metres and a low deck height. Although coconut bridges are used throughout Indonesia, they are usually very temporary and obstruct the river beneath. While this might be suitable for short term bridges such as on a construction site, ACTED bridges cannot be obstructive as logs and debris carried by flood water could easily damage the bridge. The first two bridges will span more than 20 metres with a deck height of approximately 5 metres.

This has led to innovative bridge designs with a small river profile.To shift the load from the main deck to the ground, six piles are placed in line and out of the main flow of the river. To protect the pile from river debris and decay, concrete-filled steel drums are placed around its base. The bridge will be installed with a simple bamboo frame roof to keep the deck planking and bridge structures dry and extend the bridge’s lifespan.

Construction of the first two bridges is now underway in Moro’o, where the current lack of roadway makes logistics extremely challenging. Beam parts weighing approximately three tons must be moved by hand, often through jungle and rivers. All manner of techniques are employed, including winches, log rollers, floating
in flood water, and of course, sheer manpower. Placing the piles themselves is not easy, as the three ton log must be lined up on the river bank, slowly rotated into a pilot hole, and then brought vertical as the pile drives into the clay under its own weight.

ACTED’s teams at work over the River Gali in the village of Loloana’a

This is a huge challenge for the ACTED team as there are no cranes, heavy equipment, or even a practical way to construct a tripod over the pilot hole capable of supporting the weight of the pile. Instead, the ACTED Moro’o bridge team has to use man-powered techniques that rely on balance and control. Although delicate, the operation takes a surprisingly short amount of time, approximately 2 hours per pile. An excavator is arriving on site this week, and its first job will be to drive the piles deeper to ensure that the foundations have sufficient resistance to support the bridge and load weight. Once the pilings are secured, the main structure and decking can commence. The ACTED Moro’o team is looking forward to the stone deliveries so that road surfacing can begin as soon as the bridge is completed.

Category: News June 1st, 2008

The Equatorial province, which sits north of the capital in the northwest part of the country, is the poorest area of DRC. In two of Equateur’s towns, Dongo and Buburu, ACTED has launched a part of its Watsan and hygiene program to support the reintegration of returning populations. The other part of the program is being implemented in Pweto of the Katanga province, on the other side of the country.

Thanks to financial support from the Bureau of Population, Refu gees, and Migration (BPRM), ACTED’s intervention responds to the significant influx of returnees. In Equateur, programme activities are concentrated on the banks of the river Ubangui, which mark the border between DRC and its neighbours, Congo-Bazzaville and the Central African Republic. These two countries hosted tens of thousands of Congolese as they fl ed DRC’s several wars. Dongo and Buburu were only small villages before the war of 1996, but now that refugees are returning, these two villages have come to include over 15,000 inhabitants each. In Katanga, refugees fled to Zambia and Tanzania. With the level of repatriation expected in the second half of 2008, Kasama, in the Pweto territory, will soon be rapidly expanding without being able to meet the needs of the population. Currently, Kasama holds approximately 9.600 people, 8.200 of which were repatriated.

The programme encourages durable reintegration for thou sands of returnees through rehabilitation works and improving sanitation infrastructures and access to water.

The set up of cord pump wells guarantees the system’s sustainability compared to other pumps whose spare parts are often not accessible in the isolated areas.

Construction in the two zones includes 30 cord pump wells, one water source and 9 blocks of 4 latrines. In addition to developing maintenance committees to guarantee the durability of the projects, local technicians are trained to ensure the maintenance of the wells. Training and hygiene promotion campaigns also engage local actors. More than 170 community members participate in the sensitisation using communications tools in the local language. A project innovation that ACTED has chosen to build for the first time are wells equipped with cord pumps. The advantage of this type of pump is that it is designed with materials that can be easily found in the local market (coil, bicycle frame and pedal, nylon cord, etc.). This technique was developed by a local craftsman of Katanga who trained ACTED teams. His design increases the system’s durability compared to other pumps whose spare parts are often not accessible in the isolated areas, and also makes it possible to train local technicians in its construction and maintenance. Thus, with strong foundations in the field of water, hygiene and sanitation, ACTED continues to bring innovation and to strengthen its experience while reinforcing local capacities.

Category: News June 1st, 2008