Youths motivate community to change their defecation practices

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Introduction

 

In the small rural village of Leubraudo in Aileu District, Timor-Leste, a group of youth motivate their community to change their defecation practices, become Open Defecation Free and stay that way.

“The Group of Change: Youths motivate community to change their defecation practices” is another field sStory submitted for the 2010 Source story contest.

 

Community Led Total Sanitation Triggering

 

The ‘Grupu Mudansa’ (Group of Change)   formed in response to a Plan supported Community Led Total Sanitation’ (CLTS) triggering exercise in their village.

The triggering exercise was a ‘hygiene promotion activity’ facilitated by a team of Plan and partner staff, which aimed to motivate community members to end the practice of Open Defecation.  The Plan supported team coordinated with the village chief to ensure that as many community members as possible could attend the ‘hygiene promotion’ activity.

Figure 1: Triggering CLTS in Leubraudo Community

 

The team  ran through a series of CLTS triggering activities with the community members, generating some interest.  From a total of 29 households, 9 people came forward to declare that their household would build a toilet before the end of the month.

These 9 community members formed a group to promote change in the community‘s defecating habits and get all the households to build and use a toilet.  The ‘Grupu Mudansa’ was born! Plan and partners helped the Grupu Mudansa develop simple toilet designs for their households.

Transforming lives of PLHAs through WASH Services

Mr. S. Singh is a driver in Chandauli district of Uttar Pradesh state. He was known, and perhaps envied, for his fearlessness and his well built physique.  Over the years, Singh witnessed a rapid deterioration in health, with several episodes of diarrhoea. His frequent visits to doctors led to more expenses and when he was tested for HIV in 2005, he was shocked to find that he was positive.

By the time he came to know of his HIV status, his wife and three children were also found to be HIV +. He was unable to recover from this shock for several months. Slowly he was able to accept reality due to consistent counselling from District Level Networks (DLNs) of HIV positives, a group of NGOs running Drop in Centres (DICs), and interaction with and solidarity from similarly affected persons.

Success story: Hygiene trickles down

It took years of lobbying before villagers from the beautiful Dang Valley lies Ghodd-haura, a remote village in western Nepal succeeded in opening a primary school for their children. Shree Primary educates 101 students of mixed ethnic heritage, including the Dalit minority, and its stone and woodwork building is in desperate need of renovation.

Shree Primary school Ghoddahura. Toilet made with UNICEF funds

Because of the small number of students enrolled, the government supports the school only up to grade four. If students want to continue their education, they have to walk downhill for an hour and a half and cross a river, which floods annually, to attend higher grades at another school, a signifi-cant burden for students at such an age. Similarly, all villagers who need to supplement their agricultural subsistence must walk for at least an hour and a half for food and other supplies.

Community Hygiene and Environment Improvement
Despite these challenges, the community convinced UNICEF to build toilets at the school for students and teachers. Teachers, villagers, and students carried the sacks of sand, cement, and bricks to the school from the base of the hill to ensure the toilet construction succeeded. Students and caretakers oversee their maintenance. Learning about this outcome, the Nepal Hygiene Improvement Project (NHIP) selected this school to participate in its school point-of-use pilot study conducted in early 2008.

Changing Socio cultural practices related to Sanitation in India

As far back as 1997, remote villages in Uttarakhnad (Himalayan mountain region)women were unwilling to get married into the households where some privacy for sanitation was not available.
Same communities reported that having migrant sons in service in other towns, the families would be reluctant to travel to the village to visit or stay for any length of time if there was no toilet facility- when we travelled to understand the initiatives related to infrastructure and development in the region, we found man of these toilets locked or used for storage of grass- to keep the grass dry.

Children “tired of fighting with flies” are on the march

12 May 2007 was a Saturday, and market day in Leku Town, South Ethiopia. At around 10 am, a crowd of about 200 children appeared and the streets filled with shouts. The shouts were not for their soccer team; but for improved health, as part of a demonstration for a clean environment.
Children carried placards condemning open defecation.

One read: “We need to live in clean environment!”

Another read: “Cats do not defecate in the open, but we people do! Let’s learn from cats!”

Others say:

“We don’t tolerate open defecation!”

“Defecating in open field is a rude and anti-development act.”
People attending the market watched the young people with interest and surprise. The demonstration was organised by Leku School Sanitation Club, passed by with children who had participated in CLTS field exercises in their villages. Police gave the children protection and the event was covered by the local FM radio.