News and Events

Bond, who teaches West African drumming at the College, has traveled regularly to Guinea over the past 22 years. Originally, it was her love of music that brought her there, but she began to see a great need for clean water access during her travels. A Google search connected her to the biosand filters, and from there, she learned how to make and implement the filters.

“Some of our staff members of Motherland Rhythm Community are also musicians who I met while studying the music and culture in Guinea. In addition to being musicians, they are now working on our biosand Water filter project. Thanks to this work, they have a stable income in a country that is rampant with unemployment,” Bond explained. “In addition to providing clean water for families in Guinea, the lives of our staff members have radically improved.”

The Motherland Rhythm Community staff is proud of their work. “They are able to feed and support their families and provide healthcare as needed,” Bond explained. Staff members’ children can attend school regularly. “For many, this is the first generation who have had that opportunity,” she said. “We know from studies that when children are educated they in turn educate their own families.”

In addition to making biosand filters, Motherland Rhythm Community has provided bore-dug wells, repaired broken wells, assisted a small village hospital, provided emergency medical and food support to villagers, built a small school, a women’s market, and a building for the young people to hold gatherings in a village, and provided some support for an elderly women’s garden. 

Because of Bond’s work with the biosand filters and digging wells, over 79,000 people have gained access to clean water.

The CAWST 2021 Annual Report can be read here.