Healthy kids, productive community
Thanks to your and other WaterAid supporters’ generous donations, Leonie, Stella, Joab and their family and community now have safe water, clean toilets and hygiene.
Their village has tanks for rain water harvesting, households have built hygienic toilets and community members have participated in hygiene education. Their children aren’t sick anymore from diseases which could have potentially claimed their lives. They can go to school.
Leonie and her family are benefiting from lessons learnt in hygiene training. “I had never attended hygiene training before…I learnt about washing hands after using the toilet, that we have to cover food from flies, water collected from waterholes must be covered. I didn’t do this before the training. It is important to do this to stop germs, that’s why I should wash hands. I share what I have learnt and experiences I have seen.”
As a result of the training and access to clean water and a toilet Leonie is finding that, “The children aren’t sick anymore…what I am practising is helping with the family.”
Now that she doesn’t have to navigate a treacherous mountain terrain to fetch water from a dirty creek or look after sick children she has extra time for productive activities such as gardening. “I clean the garden, plant the garden, make sure it’s clean. I grow banana, cucumber, taro, green vegetables. I grow it to sell at market and to feed the family.”
Her husband and brother-in-law Emmanuel have built an improved toilet for the household. “When we go to the toilet in the bushes it is not safe, people can look at us, flies can come and the toilet is open. This toilet is safer, cleaner, people can’t look at us,” says Emmanuel.
