MEANING AND UNDERSTANDING

Sanitation & Hygiene

With improved sanitation and hygiene in schools, health facilities and households child mortality is reduced and people are healthier and more productive.

What We Do

  • Water Supply:

    • local and plentiful water supply is a key input to improvements in sanitation and hygiene practices, which is why Water, Sanitation & Hygiene (WASH) are so commonly considered together.

    • Before a plentiful local water supply, marketing better sanitation and hygiene practices would not have led to any change in people’s behaviour.

  • Marketing - we implement a variety of tried and tested approaches that together drive home the message that ‘now there is water, there are significant benefits to communities and individuals improving their sanitation & hygiene practices’. These approaches include:

    • Empowered World View

      • as described in the Livelihood & Wellbeing page, this World Vision programme focuses on changing mindsets so that people recognise their own ability to affect their circumstances and future. While this approach does not focus on changing any specific behaviour, it sets the stage for more focussed Sanitation & Hygiene Marketing.

    • Village Sanitation & Hygiene Committee (VSHC) Training

      • VSHCs are trained to collaborate with local artisans to build covered latrines.

      • Explore and address challenges that hinder community members from having improved sanitation and hygiene infrastructure.

      • VSHCs conduct household visits to sensitise and educate households on best practices such as the use of improved toilets, proper hand-washing and water safety.

    • Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLST)

      • an integrated approach to help communities stop open defecation and improve sanitation and hygiene, involving: 

        • Community analysis: Communities analyze their sanitation practices, waste disposal, and the consequences of open defecation 

        • Community discussions: Facilitators lead discussions to highlight the health risks of unsanitary practices 

        • Transect walks: Facilitators lead transect walks to make communities aware of their open defecation sites 

        • Collective action: Communities take collective action to become open defecation free (ODF) 

        • Latrine construction: Communities build and use latrines

    • School WASH (SWASH) Clubs

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  • Infrastructure:

    • Toilet stalls in schools for privacy.

    • Taps and sinks schools for hygiene and to instil behavioural change.

    • Waste disposal equipment for girls.

  • Product Supply:

    • Motivating communities to adopt safe sanitation and behaviour practices is an important piece of the puzzle. However, a robust supply side of sanitation and hygiene products must also exist for communities to change their behaviors.

    • That is where sanitation marketing comes in, which works to connect community members to sanitation and hygiene products, such as cement and SATO pans.

    • We have taken that one step further with our Impact Enhancer: Sanitation Product Supply.  This goes beyond making connections to actually bringing the product to the community.

How it Helps

  • Addresses stunting, which is a predictor of many developmental constraints, including cognitive deficits and loss of future economic opportunities. Recent evidence suggests that poor sanitation is the second leading risk factor for child stunting worldwide.

  • Allows girls to attend school during their menstrual period.

  • Improves health of communities, addressing Disease, one of our three identified Barriers to Prosperity.

How Are We Doing?

  • Health Facilities Gained Access to Clean Water

  • Households Provided with Basic Sanitation

  • The training of SWASH teachers at Chiuta secondary school

  • A group photo of SWASH Club members and their teacher at Chiuta primary school.

  • Mr. Limwagu (District Health Officer) promoting sanitation and hygiene best practices to Malungo primary school students during social, and behaviour change and communication (SBCC) campaign

  • School latrine construction in process.

  • School latrines before DMDO intervention.

  • George Mgaza, DMDO's sanitation and hygiene specialist derivering key messages during SWASH training session

  • Faith leaders were trained on improving their latrines by using SATO pans and other sanitation marketing options

  • Tippy tap at the household

  • Local artisans demonstrate how to make tippy taps for hand wash purposes

  • Local artisans demonstrate how to install SATO pan

  • Visiting SATO pan merchant/vendor

  • Teacher's toilet at Mandwanga primary school before DMDO program

  • New toilet for teachers at Mandwanga primary school is under construction

  • Out patients toilet at Malungo dispensary before DMDO intervention

  • New out patient toilet for Malungo dispensary is under construction

  • Hand wash facility at Nambahu dispensary is under construction