Painting a future

Both WaterAid and UNICEF have used Gyang Jang's drawings to spread hygiene messages.

Credit: WaterAid

People are crucial to the success of WaterAid's work - from communities setting up, managing and maintaining their projects through to our committed staff around the world, often taking on a great deal more than they are employed to do - because they are so passionate about bringing clean water and sanitation to all.

One such person is Gyang Jang, a caretaker with WaterAid in Nigeria who decided that he could do more to help WaterAid than his day to day role involved. And so he set about teaching himself to produce sketches and paintings to promote the importance of good sanitation and hygiene. He then followed this up by teaching others about these good practices as well.

Several of his paintings and drawings have been used by WaterAid and UNICEF to explain good and bad hygiene and sanitation practices in rural Nigerian communities. They have also been used in several workshops and seminars on sanitation and hygiene education to equip facilitators and development workers.

Gyang has now been awarded for this work through a scheme across WaterAid's offices in West Africa - the West Africa Regional Award of Excellence for contribution to Programme Learning. The nominations for the award from across the region were exceptionally high, but Gyang's hygiene education work won overall.

On receiving the award, Gyang said: "I feel very excited about the award. I am very happy. I did it for pleasure. I really enjoyed working on them but now I have realised I have more potential and can improve on it. I am going to use this as an opportunity to develop my skill and contribute more to the development of society."

The pictoral nature of Gyang Jang's drawings means his hygiene messages transcend language and can be used in many different communities.

Credit: WaterAid

Due to the simplicity of Gyang's designs and the visual impact of the materials, people of diverse cultures and languages are able to understand and replicate the good sanitation and hygiene practices in their homes and communities as depicted in the paintings.

WaterAid plans to use the paintings as part of a hygiene and sanitation education manual. We also plan to share these paintings and sketches with other development workers in Nigeria and other countries as a simple but effective tool to create awareness and behavioural change in the places where we work.

Jonathan Burton, WaterAid Nigeria's Country Representative says, "Gyang's paintings will allow the poorest people in Nigeria to understand the issues surrounding sanitation and hygiene. The good practices the paintings and sketches promote will help reduce infant and child mortality by eradicating water borne diseases and other diseases that flourish in unsanitary conditions in the rural and urban poor communities in Nigeria, thus saving thousands of pounds in heath care costs."