The CIC School in Upper Allen Town, Sierra Leone was constructed in a resettlement area to provide primary education to children orphaned and or displaced during the civil war. A new school building was funded by Schools For Salone in 2011.

Narrative

The primary focus of Bank On Rain is to promote the use of RWH as a source of safe drinking water. These systems can be more affordable than wells or other alternatives and so may be well suited for use in the developing world. Initially we had utilized roto-molded plastic water tanks manufactured in Freetown for rainwater storage, but had recently learned that Interlocking Stabilized Soil Blocks (ISSB) were being used for tank construction in Kenya and Uganda with considerable success. ISSB's are manufactured from soils found on-site and formed by a hand press utilizing local labor. After a 14 day curing process the ISSB's are stronger than fired brick without the use of fuel or kiln. We had proposed RWH systems at 2 schools in Sierra Leone for installation in 2013 and thought this would be a great opportunity to utilize ISSB water tanks for both. Our research indicated that there were no ISSB curved block presses in Sierra Leone, nor had there been any individuals from Sierra Leone that had been trained in the manufacture of the blocks or their use in construction.

Bank On Rain purchased a curved block ISSB press from Makiga Engineering in Nairobi, Kenya and arranged to have is shipped to Sierra Leone. Working with Eric Silverman, a Peaces Corp Volunteer and teacher at the Barina Agricultural Secondary School in Makali, Sierra Leone we provided the press and training documentation to set up a ISSB manufacturing training program for students and staff at the Barina School. The extensive training included production of blocks and construction of a 10,000 liter water tank as part of a RWH system for a Teacher's Quarters at the School leading to issuance of certificates for those participating. After completion of the training and successful completion of the Barina tank, Bank On Rain hired the Barina crew to manufacture enough blocks to build 2 more 10,000 liter tanks at the Children in Crisis Primary School in Upper Allen Town, transport the ISSB's to the site and build the tanks. Two experienced masons were hired to further train the students and oversee the tank building.

Both the Barina and CIC school projects were great successes. Not only were the tanks of high quality, the participants used their new skills to earn wages comparable with experienced construction workers. Students, former students and senior masons are now familiar with ISSB's and we hope they will continue to promote RWH and ISSB construction, both being means to make safe drinking water more affordable at the village level.