How can a community have too much water and not enough at the same time, and what can be done about it? Just ask Å·ÃÀÊÓƵ senior Alecious Togbah, who provided her hometown with easy access to safe, clean water through Projects for Peace.
“We don’t have access to clean water, because the ocean is connected to the river, and then it pushes the tide into the community,” Togbah explained during a presentation at the college, showing a map of the Tweh Farm Community in Liberia.
The town, stretched out along the river, is frequently flooded by reddish-hued water that smells terrible because of the trees that grow in it. And while people can get around the floodwaters by travelling on narrow walkways above it, all that water is still unsafe to drink.
Instead, until recently people had to walk a long way over those walkways, wait in line at a pump for potentially hours, and then carry gallons and gallons of safe water home for drinking, cooking, and daily use.
“Growing up in the Tweh Farm Community, I experienced firsthand the daily struggle of accessing clean water. My grandmother and I had to walk long distances to fetch water, often spending hours on what should have been a simple task,” Togbah wrote in her project summary. “This challenge has stayed with me throughout my life, and I knew that once I had the opportunity, I would help my community — especially the children who still make these long trips daily.”
Now they have a better option, thanks to Togbah’s project — the installation of two water kiosks connected to the Liberia Water and Sewer Corporation and built within the Tweh Farm Community itself. Not only is the new water easier to get, but it’s cheaper, too, as residents just have to pay a $5 monthly fee to the corporation that goes toward maintenance costs, rather than a per-gallon fee.
Funding for the $10,000 project came from through its . As a partner institution, Concordia can submit two student proposals to the program, and those judged by the Davis UWC Scholars Program to be most promising and feasible can be funded at $10,000 each.
The goal is to encourage students to try out their own ideas for building peace, designing their own projects, and using innovative techniques for engaging participants in ways that focus on conflict resolution, reconciliation, building understanding, and breaking down the barriers that cause conflict.
“To me, peace is not just about the absence of war or political tension,” Togbah wrote. “It is about the ability to live without the burden of basic survival challenges, such as the struggle for clean water. It is about creating a sustainable, equitable system where people can thrive rather than merely survive.”
In order to be chosen, projects can’t simply be research-based, according to documents provided by Dr. Lisa Twomey, Concordia’s Projects for Peace coordinator, who also serves as director of community engagement and integrative learning. Instead, they must focus on engaging people on the ground and making a tangible positive difference at the grass roots level.
Togbah’s project, titled “Water Na Come OOO!,” fit that description. Her own family and her own community helped with the project and will continue to keep the water kiosks maintained.
“This project has been deeply personal for me,” she said. “Having grown up facing the same challenges that I sought to address, it gave me a new understanding of the importance of grassroots-level development.
“It has reinforced my belief that real change starts at the local level. It’s not enough to have good intentions; you need practical strategies and flexibility to adjust to on-the-ground realities.”
One of those adjustments meant changing the original plan from building one water kiosk to building two, one on either end of the community, to allow everyone to benefit from closer, safer water.
Togbah also learned a lot about logistics and problem-solving, finding herself bargaining with suppliers on costs and navigating Liberia’s banking system, which didn’t accept the card she was provided for withdrawing funds. She also found challenges within her own community, as people mistakenly thought she was a politician seeking office.
“It was important to me to demonstrate that young people from within the community could also lead positive change,” she said. “Despite these challenges, I was able to successfully complete the project and learned invaluable lessons about resourcefulness and community leadership.”
The residents of the Tweh Farm Community were deeply appreciative of Togbah’s efforts and came to her home daily to thank her.
“The project also inspired me to pursue my master’s degree in development studies, with a focus on sustainable solutions for communities like Tweh Farm,” she added. “This project has shown me the power of community collaboration and the transformative impact of access to basic needs like clean water. It has reaffirmed my belief that peace is built through collective action and sustainable solutions.”
Projects for Peace and other fellowships and scholarships