Sanitation Progress in UVP's "Healthy Villages"

We have now completed all Sanitation Workshops, in all villages.  Overall, the workshops were a wild success.  About 25 – 30 people attended each workshop, day long affairs that were intensive, interactive, and a LOT of fun.  Most attendees were Village Health Team members or LC (political council) leaders, though other leaders and important community members attended.

 

The two thirds of the workshops were mostly informational, and discussion based.  We did certain funny demonstrations too – for instance, having somebody drink supposedly clean water from a bottle, but having secretly dissolved a ton of salt in the water, to demonstrate the idea of invisible germs or other water contaminants. 

 

The last part of the workshop involved making a map of all open defecation sites around the village, and marking houses without latrines, and then coming up with a village action plan to increase latrine coverage and general sanitation.  The action plan part differed for each village, but usually involved groups of LC members and Village Health Team members working in particular “zones” of the village, reaching out to neighbors and teaching them about sanitation.  UVP is subsidizing the cost of a number of basic sanitation-measure materials, such as small jerry-cans (for hand-washing facilities), and nails (for trash pits and plate stands).

 

Now, we are in the process of running “Hands-On Days” in the villages, teaching the workshop attendees to build trash pits, plate stands and hand-washing facilities, and going over the standards of excellent bathing rooms and latrines.