This will be my last post on Tanzania (at least for a while). I hope you've enjoyed following it!
I wrote this article last November for World Toilet Day as part of my Action at Home, and it is on the online Durham student paper: http://www.palatinate.org.uk/?p=43401
I think it really sums up my experience and what I learnt in Tanzania:
‘This year the United Nations
General Assembly designated 19 November as World Toilet Day, urging changes in
both behaviour and policy on issues ranging from enhancing water management to
ending open-air defecation.’
Toilets are something we take for
granted in the Western world and we use them without thinking, but not everyone
has access to this basic need and right. The United Nations released a
statement earlier this year to acknowledge that more people in the world have
access to a mobile phone than they do a toilet. This is a worrying statistic
and something that should be taken seriously as water, sanitation and hygiene
are critical to poverty and disease reduction.
You may think that it’s as easy
as providing water and sanitation infrastructure to resolve the problem but
it’s not that simple. Education on the importance of using it needs to go
alongside the construction in order for the community to undergo a behavioural
change. This means that there is a greater chance of a long-lasting positive
impact being left in the community.
Sanitation is a human right but
one in three people do not have a safe, clean and private toilet. Bad
sanitation leads to illness and in developing countries, diarrhoeal diseases
are the second most common cause of death of young children. It doesn’t receive
as high a profile as other diseases but it kills more than HIV/AIDS, malaria
and measles combined.
There
are many organisations working towards tacking this problem, including
sustainable development charity, Raleigh International. During the summer, I
spent 10 weeks in Tanzania, working alongside 5 UK volunteers and 6 Tanzanian
volunteers, on a water and sanitation project which involved constructing
latrines for a school in a rural community.
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Digging down
for the school latrines
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However, as mentioned previously,
building toilets isn’t nearly enough. Together we planned and delivered several
awareness raising sessions in the primary and secondary schools. By playing
games and making up songs, amongst other things, which enabled us to get our
message across: the importance of washing their hands.
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We played games with
glitter to symbolise the spread
of disease when you don’t wash your hands
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We camped in the community which
enabled us to become fully immersed in the culture. It was surprising how
quickly you adapted to using long drops. The education behind using clean and
safe toilets is definitely important as you have to change a certain aspect of
someone’s life.
We also built hand washing
facilities, in the schools and around the community, called Tippy Tappy’s which
are made out of sticks, an oil container filled with water, soap on a rope and stones
to aid drainage. Through our work in the school and the community, we
encouraged people to build and maintain their own Tippy Tappy’s which will hopefully
have a long-lasting impact on the health of that community.
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A
Tippy Tappy is really easy to build and
it has the capabilities to prevent
diseases
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The project was part of the
International Citizen Service (ICS) which is a government funded scheme run by
six respected international development charities, including Raleigh
International. ICS consists of three parts: fundraising a minimum of £800, an
overseas project with volunteers from both the UK and the host country, and an Action
at Home project which aims to raise awareness about development issues and
inspire others to take positive social action.
You can find out more and get involved by
visiting www.volunteerics.org. Click
apply and you could be spending ten weeks in a rural community, in one of
twenty-four countries, and making a real sustainable difference.
