TLTG "Hygiene Education"

LOW-COST WATER SUPPLY AND SANITATION

“Hygiene Education”

GROUP 7

PUTRI SAFRIA                          (25-2011-016)

SITI HAJAR CAHAYANI           (25-2011-027)

DELTA FITRI SARI                   (25-2011-040)

 

 

JURUSAN TEKNIK LINGKUNGAN

FAKULTAS TEKNIS SIPIL DAN PERENCANAAN

ITENAS

BANDUNG

2014

Establishing Identity in a Community

A water supply and sanitation project is long-term commitment. For the project to run smoothly throughout, project staff should start correctly by visiting the community several times before any of the construction work is begun.

It is always easier to change technology than it is to change people’s behavior and practices. With this thought in mind the project engineer and staff must prepare the community. This involves more than simply telling them that a hygiene education program and new technology will be coming into their village. The project staff must encourage the community to actively participate in the planning and execution of the project. This is the specific role that a hygiene education team can play as members of project staff.

Hygiene education in a water supply and sanitation project involves the work of two groups of professionals who function as teams. The first is the planning team which includes among its members the project manager/engineer, and many other technical professionals such as health specialists, biologist and experts in various technologies. The planning team gathers information – through technical and social surveys, from discussions with villagers and other methods – about the community or area where the project will operate.

When the project actually begins, the second team goes into action. This implementing team is made of field staff. It includes many of the same technical professionals who were on the planning team, although the project angineer may not be directly involved. This team implements the hygiene education program developed with the assistence and support of local people such as teacher, community leaders, midwives and ather groups.

Background Information of the Community

To develop a hygiene education program, staff members must first find out as much as possible about the community before going there. This can be done by talking to people who have visited or worked in the community. Important information would include the following :

·       Names and location of community leaders and other respected persons;

·       Customs of addressing people which are considered polite and correct (if staff are all male, can they talk to the women, if staff are all women, can they talk to the men?);

·       The correct times to visit without conflicting with important community activities;

·       How staff can communication with women to understand their beliefs and needs and encourage them to participate in the planning and execution of hygiene education.

Establishing identity and trust is crucial because people are often suspicious of strangers. They may ask, ‘Why is this person roaming around our streets? Who gave him or her permission? Can we trust this person?’ Such questions should be answered early. It will take time to establish a good relationship with the community. Some time can be saved by entering the community with a known and respected person.

Community Leaders

Community leaders normally provide the encouragement and guidance for their communities to participate in a water supply and sanitation project and its hygiene education compenent.

The project engineer and staff must identify who the leaders are and meet with them. Leaders are generally of two types; formal and informal. The formal leader is someone with a title who has been officially chosen for a position. Such leaders may be found in :

·       Traditional hierarchy

·       Local goverment

·       Religious or cultur organizations

·       Trade associations

·       Craft unions

·       Self-help societies

·       Social clubs

·       Educational institutions

A second important category is the informal leader. These leaders have no special title and appear at first glance to be ordinary citizens. But the opinions, requests and suggestions of these people are well respected by the community. The quality of informal leaders comes from their personal qualities and abilities. Example of informal leaders may be :

·       The midwife who has years of experience delivering babies and raising children. She is directly invorved in hygiene practices, and often prescribes curative and preventive remedies for illness. She also has the confidence of woman in the community;

·       A primary health worker or volunteer who has been selected by her community;

·       A successful farmer or businessman;

·       A successful market-woman or storekeeper;

·       The aldest person in the community with a wealth of knowledge about the history and customs of the people, including those related to water and hygiene;

·       The school teacher who may eventually be a valuble resource in teaching hygiene to the children.

Planning for Hygiene Education

The promotion of hygiene education will require a specific body in the community through which planning and action can be coordinated. The community’s water supply and sanitation committe may be able to do this work. Or, an existing group in the community, which is involved in development work, may be the likely candidate for planning hygiene education.

If there is no appropriate exixting group, a committe can be formed drawing on people from representative groups and interests in the community, such as farmers’ unions or market associations. In communities which do not have any organizations like these, a completely new group might have to be formed. For the long-term benefit of the community, this new organization should have the broad goal of community development, with water supply, sanitation and hygiene education as its first priority.

Any committe formed to plan for hygiene education should involved women. Hygiene education is one of the principal roles of women whithin the household. It is essential that women, as individuals and in groups, be involved as early and as fully as possible, if the expected changes in behaviour are to occur.

Finding Organizations in the Community Which Can Help the Hygiene Education Effort

In almost every community there are formal and informal organization whose aim is to improve conditions in the community. They are valuable human resources and can provide moral support and materials that can aid in the development of water supplies, sanitation and hygiene education.

One should discover the following about each organization :

·       What project they have attempted;

·       What reasons there are for the success or failure of the pojects attempted;

·       Ahether the members are dedicated and hardworking.

Talking with villagers may also tell how good the various organization are. Listen for comments like: “They are always doing fund raising, but then the money gets spent on parties and celebrations that benefit no one” or,”The town welfare union does good work. Anytime people are in need they can expect help”.

Involving Outside Agencies

Althoughh one agency will be in charge of the water supply and sanitation project, outside agencies may provide useful assistance in hygiene education. For instance, a public health centre may be able to teach mothers the proper way to dispose of their babies excreta. An agricultur extension agency could axplain to men the health risks of defecating in open fields. All such agencies should be contacted. The community organization responsible for the project may wish to invite representative of these agencies to share ideas on hygiene education methods and assistance.

Implementing Hygiene Education

The engineer or project manager should take care not to impose new models or organizations on existing structures in the community. In the case of hygiene education the community efforts toward primary health care through local committees and volunteer workers must not be ignored. Even though it may not be an ideal solution, the decision about whether to organize a new group, and what rules, activitiesand structure it should adopt, should be left primarily to the community. Imposing new organizations on existing non-formal groups can even be detrimental to overall health and hygiene by weakening local activities that are already functioning. The instaliation of improved water supply and sanitation some factors that have been obstacles to collective action. Communities can be encouraged to organize themself to maximize the health-benefits from the new technologies. To dedice how to do this is not the choice of the engineer or planner alone, but of the community.

If a water and sanitation comittee has been organized by the community to administer the new facilities its efforts should be linked to existing health and development activities in the community.

Community Awareness, Needs and Practices

A survey of the community helps project staff understand community needs, behaviours, beliefs, attitudes, values, and resources. At the same time, community members can begin to understand the alternative technologies available and how relate to their needs. Wich this information the hygiene education team, which include the project engineer, government representatives and other technical profesionals, can develop a program with the community.

Community members will always have answer to question like “what could be done to improve hygene and sanitary conditions?” Their answer will indicate what they believe is needed in the community. They answers  will indicate what they believe is needed in the community. They may feel they need:

·       Piped water supply

·       Garbage or refuse collection

·       Water and latrines at the school

·       A clean-up of the site used for open defecation

They may not have acted before to meet these needs due to a lack of skills or resources, but the potential for action is there.

Staff members of various agencies will see needs too. They may identivy problems like .

·       High prevalence of gastroenteritis

·       No handwashing after defecation

·       Poor nutrition

·       Dirty water containers

Agency staff and community members often  see quite different needs for the same community or village. For instance, agency staff and community members will probably agry on the latrines to prevent hookworm. If hookworm is a the villagers may not feel the latrines are such an urgent need.

Improved hygiene will often fit in with the needs espressed by community members. For example, women may want to work in small business or crafts to increase family income, but they have no time. It may turn out that taking care of sick children who suffer from diarrhea is a time –consuming task. One could then suggest that an investment in a clean community water supply would result in fewer sick children. Then there would be more time and energy for economic pursuits. Women can often provide that link needed between water supply  and sanitation , and other development goals.

Paying Attention to Community Beliefs

Project staf should play close attention to the habits, beliefs and taboons  of the villagers. This type of informating, particularly when collected from the woman, can provide a starting point for hygiene education messages to change the way people use water and dispose of excreta.

A programe intended to provide latrines for all the households in an East African community shows why it is necessary to understand these beliefs and taboos.

The project staff were successful in getting one latrine built for each family compound,  but the people would not actually use the latrines. Why was this the case?

The latrines were standard one-hole models. These were not appropriate for the community since there were taboos against males and females passing faces in the same place. Furthermore, it was not considered proper for in-laws to defecate in the same place. Another problem was the desire for privacy. To achieve this, many families built the latrines far from the house, making them inaccessible to small children. In fact, everyone feared walking far in the night to relieve themselves. This program failed because the staff had not asked the right question of the villagers  was so stong that they knocked down the well and filled it up with dirt.

Another important influences on behavior is that people tend to avoid certain areas for historical or religious reasons. This has a bearing on the site of any project. For example, during a recent war in southeast Asia, one community was occupied by the opposition forces. The soldiers forced the residents to dig them a well. After the war, the hatred by the villages was so strong that they knocked down the well and filled it up with dirt.

Many years later water project technicians came to the area. They found that th best site for a well would be the one the soldiers had selected during the war. After spending a lot of money to repair the well, the projectsstaff discovered their effort was not appreciated. The villagers could not overcome their deep-seated prejudices against the well and would not use it.

Staff Training

Subject to train workers in hygiene promotion may include :

·       Communication and human relations skills;

·       Skills in making and using simple educational aids (stories, songs, posters, banners, role playing atc), using local materials and people;

·       Knowlage of the correct and healthy ways for people to use the new facilities;

·       Knowlage of the effects on health of water use and sanitation practices;

·       Understanding of how local beliefs, values, customs, and attitudes may effect water use and sanitation practices.

Who Should Get the Message

Reaching Women

Women have a special role in hygene education and they need to be involved in the early stages of the program. The information and training planned for women should be closely related to the school’s hygiene curriculum. Outlined below are some of the ghygiene message about household activities where mothers have the primary responsibility.

Many of the same loq-cost teaching aids prepared for classroom instructions can be used in the special training programs for clinics and groups of woman. The teaching techniques must be planed with the users in mind, and so must the location and time for these educational  activities.

Reaching Parents through Health Centres

Material child health clinics and midmives should receives message similar to those given to women. These types of clinics  should be the first places in a community to have access to improved water supply and sanitation facilities.

Reaching Children in the Schools

The hygiene curriculum should be in use  while the project works in the community. In this way pupils will be knowledgeable about the new facilities and can practice their new hygiene skills as soon as the projects is complete.

The curriculum committee should consider how to make loq-cost teaching aids from locally available materials. Models of clay and wood, hand-drawn posters and stories are examples. A workshop can be held to show people how to produce thes materials.

The project planning group should make sure that schools have access to the water supply facilities being constructed in the community. Ideally schools should have theirown taps or wells, latrines and refuse disposal systems. It is only when these facilities are present that pupils can learn how to use and care for them correctly. Health educators need to teach a complete procedure for using the facilities, including the use of soap and hand washing. Teachers in charge of the facilities need to make sure there are cleansing materials on hand and a place to keep the soap. They should also give  clear instruction on how to dispose of cleaning materials.

Children

Children form a large group of water users and in some communities they do much of the labour involved  in fetching water and disposing of refuse. The children can be taught at school to use water supply and sanitation facilities to improve their health. They can also help their mothers change the hygiene behavior of their brothers and sisters. However, the mothers must also understand and appreciate good hygiene practices.

As a first step in planning hygiene educations activities in a school , project staff and planning group members should meet with school authorities. They should assestment should be made of how much time is availableto teach the subject and the ability and interst of the teachers in teaching in the subject, including evening classes for parents, particularly the mothers.

Reaching Parents Though the Schools

Parents may not listen to what their children tell them they have been taught school. An active effort by the schools to their familiy. Some of the following activities may help educate and involve parents.

·       Presentation at meetings by parents and teachers;

·       Efforts to get contributions (money, materials, technical advice and labour) to help provide water supply and sanitation facilities for the school;

·       Plays by the children about water, sanitation and hygiene practices presented to the parents;

·       Special visiting days where parents can some to school and see art or science projects their children have done on water and sanitation related subjects.

How To Get The Message Across

Achiving the educational goals usually involves using various types of mass media and ‘large group’ education techniques. These must be reinforced by personal contact and locally relevant materials to be effective. The best results will be achieved by a mixrute of communication methods that combines a presentation of information with instructions and demoatrations of how parasities spread, how to use the new sanitation facilities, atc.

Some of the communication methods may require electricity, literacy, or large audiences and may be more feasible in urban settings. For rural arcas, traditional plays, story-telling or festivals can be made part of the seducational proccess.

Mass education programs should be in a language most commonly used by the community. Presentations can be enhanced by familiar proverbs, songs or poems that are relevant to the topic. The message should be simple and clear to the average citizen. They may be presented in the form of talks, slide sound shows, discussions, or demonstrations.

Review of Hygiene Education

Here are some of the main points about hygiene education that have been discussed in there notes :

·       Hygiene education must be a multi-disciplinary effort by the planning team, the implementing team and the community.

·       The community must be involved in planning the hygiene education program.

·       Hygiene education is a long-term activity – health improvements and changes in hygiene practices can take years to achieve.

·       Good health and good hygiene are made possibe by a combination of education, improvement in personal hygiene and appropriate water and sanitation technologies.

·       Community needs and community development objectives can be related to better health and improved hygiene.

·       Background information on a community is needed before planning can begin for the hygiene education program. Project staff should be aware of local leadership, local customs and which outside agencies and local institutions can assist in hygiene education.

·       A detailed community survey must be carried out to determine local hygiene conditions, needs, perceptions of health and hygiene, local attitudes towards water use, defecation and choice of new facilities, and local resources for education.

·       Project staff should identify community self-help organizations which can help promote hygiene education.

·       Hygiene messages must be desugned for their specific audience, particularly women and children.

·       Hygiene messages can be passed on using many techniques-from hand drawn posters to short radio broadcasts.

THREE HOUR PRATICAL

Project situations

One of the best exercises to prepare the participant for what she or he will be faced with when a project is implemented in a community, is through project situations. They provide a timely, realistic way of practicing skills that involve working with people.

Below are some project situations, involving two or more participants. In each case, a conflict is presented. The participants should act out the situation, trying to resolve the conflict. The struggle and outcome will illustrate the lessons of each case.

The following are only suggested situations. The trainer may wish to add details or adapt the example to a local situation.

1.    Project Situation

The objective here is to show that in a water supply and sanitation project, technology alone is not enough to solve hygiene problems, but must be accompanied by a hygiene education program. The multi-disciplinary team is essential.

Mr.X is the technician in charge of the construction of new latrines in the community. The installations are technically flawless. He teaches the villagers how to use the latrines, but even after a few months, the latrines do not seem to realieve the villagers of illness.

Mrs.Y is a hygiene education officer visiting the village several months after the latrines have been instelled.

She also actes that these has been little or no change in, the health of the villagers. However, she does not heve to look very far to see the problems. Even though the villagers have good sanitary facilities, they still walk in their bare feet, do not wash hands after defecating, and prepare food in unsanitary conditions.

Mr.X and Mrs.Y decide to hold a meeting in the village to find ways to improve people’s hygiene practices and their ase of the new sanitation facilities. In the classroom the participants can represent the views of Mr.X and Mrs.Y and the villagers themselves. In particular, two participants should be selected to represent male and female leaders in the community. Through role playing the participants should try to work out a solution to the lack of hygiene and ill health problems of the village.

ANALISA

Technology alone is not enough to overcome the problem of hygiene, which is proved in this case. Current available technology is already quite good, but the problem still can not be resolved hygiene because knowledge of hygiene are not owned by the local communities so that people are still doing things that are not good for health as they are still running with bare feet, do not wash their hands after defecation large, and preparing food in unsanitary conditions.
The way the issue of hygiene habits are selected based on the local community, so that people are more receptive to the explanations given and be able and willing to do unconventional good for their health, so that the problem can be resolved hygiene.

Education about hygiene can be done by holding meetings with local communities to find ways to improve community hygiene practices and sanitation facilities of their new. In the classroom students can represent the views of Mr.X and Mrs.Y and the village itself. In particular, participants should be selected to represent a leader of men and women in the community. Through playing the role of the participants should try to work out a solution to the lack of hygiene and health problems of the rural poor.

Meeting of the society must involve influential people. With convince influential people, the people will be able to be invited because people will be more mencotoh these influential people.

 

2.    Project Situation

The objective here is to show the importance of hygiene education in school, because children are an important target population.

A child going to school is taught about the latrines at the school and takes part in hygiene education classes, as well. However, each night the child goes home to unsa nitary conditions, and an unhealthy family. Is the child’s education going to have an impact on the family?

This project situation can be worked out in two parts. In the past, two participants can take the positions of the children who go home and tell their parents what has been learned at school about good hygiene practices. The parents do not really understand what their children are telling them and find it hard to believe. Two other participants can take the positions of the mother and father.

In the second part of this situation the local school teacher hears from these children what is happening at home. The teacher decides to meet with the project technician and a worker from the local health clinic to plan a strategy for getting hygiene messages directly to the parents, and especialiy to the mothers. Three other participant can take the positions of the teacher, technician and health worker as they discuss their strategy, what outside resources they will need, and who can assist them.

ANALISA

In this project, the technician can approach the home environment and the school environment. By combining these two approaches, hygiene education delivery will be delivered appropriately and well absorbed.

The approach of the school environment may be made to the teacher about how the delivery of hygiene education for students who are good and convincing, so that students can be proud and confident to pass on to their parents about what they can in school and can practice it at home.

The approach of the home environment can be done by approaching the parents in ways to make a more convincing with their children as an example, so that parents can follow the hygiene education.