by Josephine Asio, Program Coordinator
“Having a pit latrine in my village was
considered a luxury,” Harriet laments. Based on this comment, it doesn’t
surprise me that she scoffs when she tells me that her neighbors used to think
that it was witchcraft that made children fall sick. Harriet knows it was the
poor health conditions of the village.
But now, three years later, Harriet is
pleased with the changes she has seen in Namufuma. She says that seven out of
ten neighbors now have latrines and many more people sleep under mosquito nets.
These numbers were confirmed by the graduation survey in the village – there was
a 20% increase in latrine coverage and a 10% increase in knowledge of how
malaria spreads and is prevented during the three years.
One notable thing Harriet shared with me was
the difference in how the community members saw the government health workers.
Prior to UVP working in Namufuma, the sub-county Health Assistant was known for
arresting people who did not have a
proper latrine. Although that practice had been outlawed nearly ten years ago,
community members still feared a visit from the Health Assistant. The VHTs and
UVP staff visited the village many times with the Health Assistant to provide
valuable education and slowly debunked the myth that those without proper
facilities would be arrested.
She finishes our conversation by making a
bold statement: “A healthy community is a wealthy community.” I pondered this
statement for a while, wondering why she so clearly understood the relationship
between health and poverty, but that others still seemed far away from this
revelation. I came to a conclusion I’ve had before: behavior change is a slow
process and we must be patient and persistent.
Do you believe that health and wealth are
intertwined? Learn more about UVP’s Health Villages program by visiting our
website.
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