Imagine a respectable village man being
found defecating in the open by young boys from his own community!
Imagine a
woman colliding with her son-in law in the nearby bushes as they both try to
find some place to hide and defecate! Imagine living in a community where you
no longer receive fresh air but the stench of human feaces! Imagine, imagine, imagine!
These are but just imaginations of many of
you who will have the chance to read this story but these have been real life
experiences of many communities in developing countries, including communities
in Machinga district, Malawi. Many households in the rural parts of the Machinga
did not have toilets and the only place where they could go to defecate is in
the nearby bushes. Imagine again what life is like to live without a toilet!
Yet this has been the practice of many communities for many years until Heart
to Heart Malawi, working with government extension workers from the Ministry of
Health, facilitated a process called Community Led Total sanitation (CLTS).
Community-Led
Total Sanitation (CLTS) focuses on igniting a change in sanitation behaviour
through a process of social awakening that is stimulated by facilitators from
within or outside the community.
Community members decide together how they will create a clean and
hygienic environment that benefits everyone.
Front line staffs from the Ministry of Health
and Ministry of Irrigation and Water Development, worked together with Heart to
Heart staffs to build community momentum in stopping wide spread open
defecation. Utilising different tools, like mapping of defecation areas,
transect walk, calculation of shit and medical expenses, facilitators led
communities from Malajira and Muwawa villages through a process that eventually
made both men and women from these villages bow their heads down, ashamed of
their practice of open defecation (OD).
Yes, this was a moment when both men
and women, including children got ashamed!
They could not believe to see,
through this facilitation, the extent of open defecation in their own
environment, nor could they take it lightly when they saw how flies moved from
food to shit and then from shit to food.
They were not only ashamed but also
abhorred the practice of open defecation.
They were disgusted by their own bad
sanitation behaviour.
They all agreed that OD had to end and that something
needed to be done to end this practice!
.jpg "191113-A(1).jpg")
<Officer is sharing schedule with village people> <Village people who participated in education>
Communities, with the help of facilitators,
therefore embarked on construction and use of household latrines.
Communities
celebrated as they constructed their latrines, singing and chanting ‘away with
the practice of open defecation!’
<A
completed latrine from Muwawa Village>
Community leaders and their people are
grateful to the people of the Republic of Korea for their financial support
that has transformed these communities and more other communities in the nearest
future.
Women and men from Malajira and
Muwawa village no longer live with shame, thanks to KOICA and the people of the
Republic of Korea!
.jpg "191113-A(2).jpg")