In its Year Five Annual Report, WASHplus has stories to tell, results to share, events to celebrate, and studies that add to the evidence base. WASHplus activities serve as the backdrop for many stories: the Zambian school girl who has access to privacy and menstrual supplies when she needs them, the Malian household that can now build an improved latrine on their rocky soil, the mother in Bangladesh who understands the importance of a feces-free environment, the Nepali home breathing cleaner air as it trials an improved cookstove. And perhaps more compelling than the individual stories are the results the project is beginning to record through endline data collection in Kenya and formative research on school enrollment and in Zambia. Providing water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) infrastructure to schools is having a notable impact on enrollment. Community-led total sanitation (CLTS) may be inoculating communities exposed to cholera. Numbers also tell the story of the project’s impact. Look for a snapshot of those figures throughout the report.
The conclusion of field activities in Uganda and Zambia this year provided opportunities to reflect, celebrate accomplishments through end-of-project (EOP) events, and share lessons learned. Several articles were published this year in peer-reviewed journals and others submitted on topics ranging from consumer preferences and willingness to pay for improved cookstoves to habit formation and costing of handwashing. WASHplus also played a key role in preparing the joint document on WASH and nutrition for publication and distribution.
WASHplus’s focus on integrating WASH into other development initiatives enabled the project to get in on the ground floor on subjects that are gaining traction at USAID and globally, such as WASH and nutrition, neglected tropical diseases, and MHM. This integration focus dovetailed nicely with the project’s mandate to serve a technical leadership role, and project staff had many opportunities this year to share its work and lessons from the field on a global stage, strategize with partners on important advocacy issues, inform policy, and develop guidance in multiple countries. Also toward that end, WASHplus launched its first two learning briefs on small doable actions and WASH and nutrition. This series details the variety of approaches WASHplus uses to improve WASH and household air pollution (HAP) across its portfolio of countries.
And finally, it’s been an exciting year for innovation with pilot projects underway in Ethiopia and Bangladesh focusing on sanitation marketing and sand envelopment. These two efforts will add to WASHplus’s body of knowledge on sanitation innovation and aligns closely with USAID’s global interest on the topic. WASHplus is also documenting its fecal sludge management work in Madagascar to tell the next chapter in that story.
In August 2015, months of collaborative planning bore fruit as WASHplus carried out a training of master trainers with WASH and nutrition partner SHIKHA. The training for project managers responsible for community and household level outreach focused on Why WASH Matters for Child Growth, and provided new information and skills for safe feces management in USAID Feed the Future areas. Workshop sessions focused on breaking the fecal-oral cycle through latrine improvements and introduced WASHplus’s small doable action (SDA) approach to safe disposal of infant feces. Through this training and subsequent field visits, WASHplus was able to finalize a menu of SDAs for various infant and young child age cohorts. Workshop participants also provided input into job aids to help implement the SDA approach in the field. A second training was held in October. A poster on the subject of infant feces disposal was presented at the Integrated Nutrition Conference, Nairobi, Kenya, in September. In addition, WASHplus has published flipcharts, flashcards, and other materials in Bangladeshi on topics ranging from latrine improvement to tube well construction to menstrual hygiene management. Access the tools here.
By Ron Clemmer, Strategy and Business Development Manager, WASH, FHI 360.
About the author: Ron Clemmer joined FHI360 in May after working with World Vision as Senior Technical Advisor for WASH for six years. Ron is passionate about building sustainable water and sanitation services through the public and private sectors, hygiene behavior change that becomes habit, and integrated programming of WASH with nutrition, HIV, neglected tropical diseases, education, and women’s empowerment.
“I was fortunate to attend last week’s World Water Week 2015 in Stockholm which included, among many other activities, attending three different water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) and gender sessions. Having five hours of presentations and discussion on WASH and gender issues in one day was remarkable. Great that gender had so much focus! One of the presentations I found fascinating was research on the psychosocial stress of women and girls related to WASH, presented by Robert Dreibelbis, from the University of Oklahoma. WASH programming can provide a good entry point for working with communities for many development goals, including empowerment of women and gender equity, was one of the conclusions of the session.
At World Water Week, I shared how the USAID-funded WASHplusproject, implemented by FHI 360, is strengthening girl’s and boy’s education by integrating and embedding WASH in Schools and providing support for menstrual hygiene management.
Photo Credit: German Toilet Organisation
World Water Week was part of two weeks of intense dialogue of women empowerment for me. The week before, I had multiple communications on women’s empowerment surrounding WASH with my FHI 360 colleagues working on the WASHplus project, as we have begun discussing how to support the representation of WASH issues at Women Deliver 2016 Conference. We discussed how WASH not only addresses health issues, but also influences safety, time poverty, and dignity for women and girls.
If you are not familiar, Women Deliver is a leading global advocate for girls’ and women’s health, rights, and wellbeing and brings together diverse voices and interests to drive investments and progress, particularly in maternal, sexual, and reproductive health and rights. The focus of the Women Deliver 2016 Conference will be on how development can best support girls and women, with a specific lens on health, rights, gender equality, education, and economic empowerment.
As the father of two young girls, I often think about girl’s empowerment and what that means for society at large. I am fortunate to work in an organization which empowers women and girls through not just the provision of improved WASH but also the integration of WASH into other development sectors to strengthen girls and women’s rights, health, and wellbeing.
Before I ran to the airport to catch my flight to Stockholm, I was involved in women’s empowerment in an entirely personal way. My 12 year old daughter was participating in her 3rd triathlon while my wife was enjoying listening to my younger daughter’s piano recital. We are grateful for the opportunities that our daughters have to flourish into empowered young women, as I strive in my work to contribute to the empowerment of less privileged girls around the world.”
By Justin Lupele, Chief of Party, USAID ZAMBIA SPLASH PROJECT / WASHplus / FHI 360
This year on May 28, the world commemorates the second Global Menstrual Hygiene Day under the theme “Let’s end the hesitation around menstruation.” The world is being urged to break the silence and talk freely about menstruation as a normal biological process and a key sign of reproductive health.
Some cultures in Zambia and elsewhere treat menstruation as something negative, shameful, or dirty. It is shrouded in taboo and secrecy. In addition, girls’ rights to education are being violated through inadequate menstrual hygiene education, insufficient water and sanitation facilities, and poor access to sanitary menstrual materials. Menstrual hygiene facilities and services keep girls in school where they can reach their full potential.
Speaking at the inaugural World Menstrual Hygiene Day at Kabulonga Girls Secondary School in Lusaka last year, USAID/Zambia Mission Director Dr. Susan Brems urged Zambians to break the silence, to start the conversation, and follow up with positive action for menstrual hygiene management (MHM).
She observed that taboos on the disposal of used menstrual hygiene products and challenges associated with limited access to disposal facilities make it very difficult for girls and young women to participate freely in academic, economic, and social activities.
Head of Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights Dr. Jyoti Sanghera of the UN’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights observes that “stigma around menstruation and menstrual hygiene is a violation of several human rights, most importantly, of the right to human dignity… and the right to freedom from inhuman and degrading treatment from abuse and violence.”
USAID/Zambia has over the last four years invested about US $20 million in Schools Promoting Learning Achievement through Sanitation and Hygiene (SPLASH) to support 616 schools in the Eastern Province through the WASHplus project, implemented by FHI 360, CARE, and Winrock International.
SPLASH and the Ministry of Education Science and Vocational Training and Early Education (MESVTEE), in collaboration with other line ministries, provide girl-friendly sanitation facilities and access to menstrual products.
In the last four years, SPLASH and the MESVTEE have built 263 toilets and ventilated improved pit latrines with shower stalls for girls’ MHM. More than 30,000 girls have benefited from these improvements. These features make it possible for adolescent girls to bathe and change their sanitary pads at school with privacy.
A total of 816 teachers (598 males and 218 females) have been trained as advocates for menstrual hygiene education. The trained teachers share their MHM knowledge with other teachers and members of the community in addition to teaching their pupils. SPLASH has also been working with traditional civic and church leaders to break the silence and taboos associated with MHM. Parents and pupils are talking freely about menstrual hygiene.
At school, both girls and boys are involved in making menstrual pads. Educating boys and men helps dispel myths, stigmas, and negative perceptions about menstruation. Bringing them into conversations about menstruation helps to create a supportive environment for girls and women.
After participating in an MHM exhibition at Kanjala Primary School in Chipata District, one boy had this to say, “As a boy, I have a role to play in MHM. These girls are like our sisters so I’ve learnt that I need to treat them with respect. I was also excited to learn how to make a reusable pad.”
Men and boys are encouraged to participate in pad-making and MHM education to open lines of communication and raise awareness about this once-taboo subject.
SPLASH has also forged partnerships with other nongovernmental organizations and private companies to make commercial and local reusable pads. Two of the organizations that have responded to this call are YASH Pharmaceutical Ltd. and Project Luangwa. YASH Pharmaceutical Ltd has produced an eco-friendly washable pad dubbed the pink pad, which is yet to be launched on the Zambian market. According to Mr. Shiva Shankar, YASH Pharmaceuticals Ltd General Manager, the pads can be washed for over 50 times and it is made of eco-friendly textiles, with minimum leakages.
Project Luangwa, in the Mambwe District of Zambia, has established a pad-making project with 60 sewing machines. The project has employed out-of-school girls and women to produce the sanitary pads. Project Luangwa Director Karen Beattie confirms, “Production of the pads is surging ahead and we have four ladies whom we have trained to sew, a cutter and a manager. The pads are definitely helpful to women, and we hope to record their thoughts for an on-line ad.”
Girls from Kamuna Primary School examine reusable pads produced by a public-private partnership between SPLASH and YASH Pharmaceutical. The pads were developed to last for five years, or more than 65 washes.
These efforts aim to ease the challenges that adolescent girls face during menstruation. Most of them cannot afford disposal sanitary pads. Some girls miss up to five days a month of learning time due to inadequate sanitation facilities and the lack of sanitary products at school as well as physical discomfort due to menstruation, such as cramps. Others may feel ashamed and embarrassed to go to a school that does not provide menstrual management facilities, and they may simply stop coming to school altogether.
In addition to supporting sanitary pads, SPLASH has produced a number of materials on MHM, including an MHM Toolkit, an MHM brochure, and an MHM success story. SPLASH has also been working with teachers to integrate menstrual hygiene into the curriculum at school, district, and national levels.
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