Latrines

There comes a time in many development workers' carreers when they start to ask for money. That time, for me, has come! After a series of meetings, talking with my counterpart, hashing out plans, writing a proposal, getting it signed and sent to Dakar for approval, at last my Peace Corps Partnership application is online. Here's the address:
https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.donors.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=685-108
Basically, a Peace Corps Partnership is a way for folks at home to donate money directly to a specific project. My proposal is for latrines. Here's how it happened: my counterpart came to me asking whether I may have an idea how to get funding for building latrines in the village. At the moment, very few families have a latrine in their compound. They simply go into the bush, usually at night. Just before the rainy season, my counterpart built a latrine behind his house. It's a very simple design: a hole in the ground, a hard-packed seat set over wooden poles, the top reinforced with the little cement leftover from patching my cracked hut walls. He's hoping it will last a couple seasons before collapsing under the rains. Meanwhile, the neighbors come over to our compound all the time to use it! They'd love to have latrines in their compounds, too. Behind every home is an open area where they tether the animals, maybe have a hutch for chickens or ducks - the perfect place to install a latrine. My counterpart was very excited when he heard about the possibility of a Peace Corps Partnership. If we collect the money, he will be in charge of organizing thirty families throughout the village to build their own latrines. Ideally this will happen right before the rainy season, when people have plenty of time to collect the sand, gravel, and water they need for construction, and to do the labor. My counterpart has the technical skills and the community connections to get it done; what the village needs is the money to buy enough cement and iron bars for thirty latrines to be built. With these materials, the latrines can be built well enough to last. One of the few families who has one built it this way, and they say their latrine has lasted over ten years! It's an instant imrovement to village health, especially for the children. And, as I've said before, there are a LOT of kids!
Any amount you can give would be a huge help. Whatever small things I manage to accomplish are tiny drops in the bucket of this village's development. Building latrines would be a splash!