On the move
on Um Zayd wa Atheer (Uganda), 03/Aug/2009 14:22, 34 days ago
The Miirya Project has become hectic at last. More mosquito nets have been bought and distribution is going well with 2 net sales each week. On the other days we are moving out to the villages to help the village volunteers sensitise their communities. It is all encouraging and people are now asking for the nets as they hear stories of people experiencing less malaria. Thank you for your help in achieving this!The Miirya Project is not just about malaria and we are now moving on to other health promotion issues. In June we held 3 Diarrhoea Prevention Workshops for 100+ volunteers. As a follow up to this we held another Workshop last Thursday for the 12 government Primary Schools in Miirya Sub County. Twelve teachers were invited and all turned up, more or less on time. Our message was simple. Clean food, clean water, clean hands will help prevent diarrhoea, dehydration and sometimes even death in Primary School children. It was an interesting day and teachers had horror stories to tell us about the poor hygiene and sanitation in their schools. Most have no running water, no water for drinking and pit latrines are in a poor state. Clearly diarrhoea prevention is not that straight forward after all. But we did have 2 simple ideas to share with them and they seemed enthusiastic about both.TIPPY TAPS are made from ordinary jerry cans (a plastic container with a handle on the side).Simply by creating a hole for the spout, hanging the container by string on a tree or across a branch it can be tipped by using a foot operated stick. It gives a gentle trickle of water adequate to wash your hands without touching anything. Very cheap and children apparently love the simple mechanics of it. On Thursday after a demonstration and a trial run 12 teachers took a jerry can and string back to their schools. A small but significant step we hope.SODIS (solar disenfection) is a brilliant way of providing clean drinking water. Every day clear plastic water bottles are thrown away. We are now encouraging people to use them to fill with water and lie them flat in the sun for 6 hours. After this the water is fit for drinking. It's cheap, easy and environmentally friendly. Again the teachers seemed impressed and we hope they will use this idea in their communities as well as their schools.It's the end of Term next week. At the beginning of the new Term we will revisit each of the 12 schools and continue to support them in trying to reduce diarrhoea among their pupils. Despite the efforts of many the obstacles are huge. Two of the schools have over 700 pupils and all of the schools 'share' their latrines with the local communities. The Miirya Project is moving on and asking others, such as teachers, to join us on the journey.