Hygiene education and improved toilet facilities
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Authors
Annie Halliman
Issue Date
2016-04
Type
Language
en
Keywords
Water and Sanitation
Alternative Title
Abstract
Sikhanyiswe Masuku is the village health worker in Bethel Village, Gwanda District Ward 14 in Zimbabwe. She explained that "seven out of 50 households had toilets at the start. Open defecation was everywhere so you walked through it. Through education and workshops we are now aware that we have to properly dispose of our waste through toilets. It was part of our culture before to do open defecation. We now have 70 toilets." "People have been sharing toilets, but people are now beginning to construct their own. Beforehand, people used to dig a trench to go to the toilet. The community can go to the health club to learn and then share with other members of the community so everyone can learn about good health and hygiene practices. It wasn’t all that easy for people to accept the new knowledge, especially as the community were not aware of practices such as hand washing after using the toilet and it took some-time for people to understand its importance." "Some attitudes are negative to new in-coming ideas, so we need to talk to them more to help show them how they can stop getting diseases. It all takes time. To keep the community clean we get together to keep encouraging people to clean up and we arrange the community to do big clear-ups when it gets dirty again." "Last year we had five cases of diarrhoea reported to the health clinic, but we have had none so far this year and Jan to March is the rainy season which is when it is most common." With funding from the EU, Practical Action's project has given access to water and sanitation facilities in the Gwanda district of Zimbabwe.