CLTS

WMU goes with GOAL to the field.

Yesterday, WMU health trainer Ritah and I went to Namayingo District to see GOAL’s water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) work. In the morning we saw how they do follow up of communities, house by house, checking on what home improvements have been achieved or are being worked upon. This gives opportunity to explain and address hygiene on a personal basis, plus adds pressure to achieve the goals the community members initially desired. We also went to the borehole that GOAL had put in this community.

 

Susan, Ritah and I then left the team doing follow-up to see the school projects. GOAL’s work in the schools is to build latrines, set them up for rainwater harvesting, and provide fir tree seedlings.

See the contrast between the old and new latrine blocks.

In the afternoon, the team split into two (2) groups for ‘triggering’ sessions. GOAL follows an international sanitation teaching method called Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS). The specific aim, though general WASH points are incorporated, is to end open defecation in a community by creating disgust and putting it to the community to do something about it (i.e. dig latrines for themselves).

In CLTS the trainers get the community to map out their community with all structures and streams. Each person is given a blue or yellow paper to mark their house, depending on if they have a latrine (blue) or not (yellow). Every person whose name is on a yellow paper is called forth, one by one, to pour some ash where they defecate. Already such residents feel embarrassed.

Community mapping, with places for open defecation marked

The trainers then get the group to go to one of the defecation areas and together they find feces. This is where community members are really ‘triggered’ that open defecation is shameful and disgusting, and so should be changed. We see the flies that are on it and consider where it goes when rains come (into the water sources), and community members see that they have been eating and drinking one another’s poo (or “shit” – trainers are supposed to use whatever word is most offensive). I was going to take photos of disgusted faces, but they were so ashamed and I thought one lady would even cry, so I kept the camera down for that moment.

The walk of shame.

We then go back to the meeting place, with the shit. A trainer hands around a sealed bottle of water, which volunteers freely drink from. He or she then takes a thin piece of grass, dips it in the shit, and puts in the bottle. Again, the bottle of water is passed around. No one drinks it. “Why not?” The trainer asks, “it’s such a small amount, you can’t even see it.” The point of how filthy their water is, which they are normally willing to drink, has been made.

Next, we do some mathematics. Community members say how much one pile would weigh (they came up with an average of 500g), how many times a day people defecate (3), and so how much shit is being produced by one person in a day, a week, a month, a year. At this point, the trainers joke around a bit, congratulating on how productive community members are to produce so many kilograms of shit.  The trainers ask how many members are in a household, calculate the kilograms; and how many households do not have latrines, calculate. The conclusion is that the community is opening themselves up to eat that many kilograms of shit every year!

Look how much shit one community can produce – and leave out for consumption.

The community naturally wants GOAL to build them latrines, but CLTS is about getting community members to be proactive in helping themselves. That’s why the triggering method is used. The community gives excuses, but GOAL stands firm that they are not there to give anything other than training. The conclusion is that each community household will dig a latrine, and they will help one another where necessary (such as for elderly or disabled community members). GOAL asks when they can come back to check on the progress, and the session is summed up.

Poor water, sanitation and hygiene are the major cause of disease. Disease is socially and economically debilitating. Many diseases and their consequences are preventable!

Good news!

A bit of background:  Normally when I receive a phone call, especially from an unknown number, somebody wants something. They have a need, they don’t know why I haven’t visited... legitimate points to raise, but can be a bit of an onslaught. I brace myself to see if I will even remember who they are and to give a prompt nice answer to explain why I haven’t fulfilled whatever it is I was ‘supposed’ to have done, and am unlikely to do so but they could try a, b, c.

 Culture:  Our good friend Joe read Bryan and I a funny story about a group of Africans asking a group of missionaries for drugs they didn’t need, and then throwing them in the bushes. They had asked for drugs to esteem the missionaries, because it’s a ‘privilege’ to be the go-to person.  So if I was a Ugandan I’d perhaps find all these calls a compliment.

I just got a phone call from an old friend. She is the mother of a girl ISA used to support. ‘Used to’ because the mum’s emotional, social and economic state was drastic and the girl was falling sick every time. Then one day, the mum came to us and said she’d like to take back full responsibility of her daughter, and that an aunt was going to help with school fees. We didn’t agree initially, and gave a little time to ensure the new living conditions were indeed steadied. We visited the new room she was staying in, the neighbours around, and confirmed the income available. The girl was now strong; the mum was now well and able... so after a bunch of paperwork and counselling the girl, the return of parental responsibility was made.

She ended up studying, along with her siblings, in a school where I used to teach – St Moses. She is still there, she is in boarding school, and the mum is going to visit for visitation day (the first Sunday of each month in most schools). The family no longer lives in Jinja, but has moved closer to the aunts and uncles. All have put their resources together to buy land and the construction of their home to be is already underway. She thanked me for being a friend during her hard times, and gave all glory to God for the complete change in her and in her situation since.

Now that’s a phone call I like to receive!

That’s the praise report, but let me expand on two points from that testimony:

1)      Boarding school is considered a good thing here. Parents like it because they feel their child will have good study discipline, achieve better results, and so have a better chance of future employment. Teachers like it because the children are on time for class, can attend evening classes, and aren’t distracted by household chores (especially girls) like fetching water and caring for babies.

2)      It was actually very difficult signing a child we’d cared for, who was part of the CARE4Kids family, back to her family. I definitely believe it is the right thing for a child to be with their family wherever possible! So I guess I was just saying that because doing the right and better thing still is hard where you have to detach yourself from someone you love.