Pictures of the water system we are repairing




Board of Directors

The members of the Board of Directors of FOP are Alieu Nyassi, Seth Blackley, Brae Blackley, Russ Glass and Robin Cherry. Biographies of Alieu, Seth and Brae can be found in the post called "About Us."

Robin is a student at Harvard Business School with extensive experience with consulting for non-profit start-up organizations. Russ is a business manager with impressive accomplishments in start-up organizations and marketing. Both Russ and Robin graduated from Duke University.

The Board of Directors of any non-profit is a critical force in shaping the tenor and future of the organization. Thank you to Russ and Robin for volunteering their expertise!

The Crew

The crew for our journey has been finalized... The magnificant 7 are as follows:

1. Robin Cherry
2. Russ Glass
3. Josh Callahan
4. Patty Wu
5. Marc Balenciago
6. Seth Blackley
7. Brae Blackley

Most of the group are students at Harvard Business School, and the rest are "partners" or spouses - a.k.a. the ones who work to pay the bills! :)

We are all looking forward to a great visit to Penyem, to meeting new Gambian friends and to leaving the village a better place than when we arrived!

Water Delivery System

Last week, FOP put a down-payment on the pump to be manufactured by Coralex in Arizona. The pump is currently under construction, and is on schedule to be delivered to Penyem shortly before our arrival at the end of next month.

The remainder of the payment for the pump must be paid before the pump is shipped in a few weeks. Fundraising is going well, but we still have not reached the goal. Thanks to everyone who has supported the project to this point! But we've still got more work to do.

Dennis, our pump-expert friend who currently lives in Spain, is helping to develop a pump control device, which will also be constructed and shipped to Penyem before our arrival.