Youth cooperative, the Water Sie Boys, runs a public shower for slum-dwellers in Kroo bay slum, home to 13,000 people in the centre of the capital Freetown. Water Sie Boys received US$ 9,000 (€ 6,800) to set up the community shower from the government Youth Employment Secretariat (YES). Set up in 2008, YES, supported by the UN Development Programme (UNDP), has established a fund of US$ 700,000 (€ 527,000) to distribute grants and micro-finance loans to youth groups.

“If you want a shower, you pay 3 US cents (100 Leones) and you can take five minutes, or we will give you a bucket of water. People need soap so we started to make it [soap] too”, says Sidiki Mansark who set up Water Sie Boys. “We are 20 working here - but I want to increase the number. We get by - every now and then we have to put in $1.50 to sustain our business. We want to expand it to other zones in the slum. We could employ 40 people because we always have enough customers”.

Related news:

• Microfinance: unique partnership aims to spur innovation in India’s sanitation sector, Source South Asia, 08 Dec 2009
• Microfinance: improving access to water supply and sanitation in urban India, Source South Asia, 08 Dec 2009
• WASH news Finance - Microcredit

Related web sites:

• UNDP Sierra Leone -Youth Employment and Empowerment Programme
• ILO – Youth Employment
• WaterPartners International - WaterCredit Initiative

Related publications: Publications on microcredit in IRCDOC.

Source: IRIN, 24 Mar 2009 ; IRIN, 24 Mar 2009

Tags: africa, financing, hygiene promotion