Wash your hands!

Here I am again in Ituri. This time, evaluating a "watsan" project. Yes, here we go today for some humanitarian jargon. 'Watsan' stands for Water and Sanitation. It usually means a project that aims to improve public health. This is done through increased access to water and sanitation facilities. Though Congo does not lack rain, access to quality water remains a problem. Sanitation is also very poor. This leads to lots of waterborne diseases. Cholera is endemic in many places of Congo and diarrhea widespread among children.

It's certainly fine having protected sources or wells and brand new latrines. But this will be almost pointless if those are not corrected used (and maintainted). What is also key is appropriate hygiene practices. The education and sensitisation component is here crucial and an essential part of any public health project.

So here I am in a school, in the middle of nowhere in Ituri. Imagine a very dark room, with at least 200 children, sit on their bench, waiting for the show to start. And show it shall be. In front of the children, a woman with extraordinary energy and passion. For two hours she wil tell them all about public health issues. First children have to know about waterborne diseases. Not very difficult since diarrhea and other scary experiences are not unknown stories for them. The sensitisation session goes on explaining the whole process how they got contaminated. It also touches upon the consequences of a sick child upon the whole family. It ends up with how preventing those diseases to take place. This is not the first session for those children; they had two previously. The whole principle is that this is not viewed as a boring lesson but somehow a game, using modern learning techniques. So children fully participate in the lesson. The teacher ask them numerous questions, and it's fun to see numerous arms raising suddenly and kids wanting to show they got the answer.

Needless to say that having a muzungu (white person) in the room increases signifincatly the kids' excitement. That was also a great moment for me. Sensitisation sessions in Africa ususally are poorly done, with a dubious impact. This one certainly is having an impact: the messages are right, the methodology appropriate, it's fully participative, and done by an extraordinary woman.

This post is dedicated to her.