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.