A day in the life....

Silus Simba, standing next to a round loo

Credit: WaterAid / Rosie Wheen

Silus Simba, Round Loo Program Leader, for WaterAid partner in Papua New Guinea - Atprojects

First I worked as a driver at ATprojects and then I was promoted to this job, helping communities build their own toilets.

People come to the ATprojects office or send messages to request assistance to build toilets.  They pay a small contribution of K20 (about $10) towards the costs and WaterAid provides staff like me, including salary, training, transport, etc. as well as some of the materials.

These toilets are in big demand so I go to many communities to make many toilets!

Sometimes I drive as far as the Southern Highlands and all around the Eastern Highlands where I also manage and support other masons who build toilets.

In the communties I show people how to twist the wire, oil the mould, mix the cement and sand and make the concrete slab.  Then I supervise them while they make one themselves. The community members are always very happy about making the round loo toilets as they remember their old toilets and how they were smelly. Sometimes though people in the community have other commitments like family gatherings which can slow down the project.

Part of my job is to encourage community members to form a group to work on the toilets to sell to their community and then in return they make some money for food.

I have 10 groups in the Eastern Highlands in 2 districts. I have a list of people of people who want toilets waiting to be shown how.

I travel in the ATprojects loo car that has a megaphone on top playing the ‘poo’ song!  The poo song has very good messages about hygiene and is in the local language so it is a very effective hygiene education tool. 

When I travel on the highway I stop where there are markets with many people eating.  People before eating at the market place sometimes go and poo in the bush and then don't wash their hands before they eat. I try to educate them about good hygiene by stopping to play the poo song.   It is effective at getting people to think about washing their hands. 

Sometimes at the market and elsewhere in the communities there are flies around that land on the food after landing on faeces that is left out in the open.  Having toilets means less flies spreading disease, so I am proud to encourage people to build toilets.

Many people in our country think that toilets should not be openly discussed.  I disagree though because we need them to have healthy communitieis.  When I went to school I did classes on health hygiene so I know how important it is.  I also learned more technical information when I came to work for ATprojects.

Silus is now a trainer

Credit: WaterAid / Rosie Wheen

The work with WaterAid and ATprojects is going so well that I get to go all around PNG - Western Highlands, Madang, Lae, for instance, to share our learnings about Round Loos with other organisations like Marie Stopes and Digicel Foundation. I am now a trainer of the trainer. I also wrote a book on how to run the training.

I like my job because I go out and work in communities and I can see that ATprojects is having a positive impact.