Aster Alaro, a mother of four boys and three girls, lives together with her husband Ato Ermiyas Moliso in a tin-roofed mud house in Duguna Damot Shinka kebele, Duguna Fango woreda, Wolaita Zone, southern Ethiopia.
Aster wakes up before dawn to prepare breakfast for her family. After sending her children to school, she cleans the house, fetches water and washes clothes. Her husband supports her by fetching fodder for the cattle and tilling the land.
In 2013 and 2014, People in Need (PIN) with funding from the European Commission's Humanitarian and Civil Protection department (ECHO) worked on improving water access and hygiene and sanitation standards in southern Ethiopia. Through an approach also focusing on awareness raising, PIN helped to build and improve latrines in homesteads and local institutions, trained health workers, established sanitation clubs in schools and community conversation groups, and gave over 4 000 jerry cans to families.
“PIN provided us with a jerry can and built latrines in the school which my children attend. They also trained us in good hygiene practices. Our life has completely changed now, for example we don’t defecate in the bush anymore,” says Aster.
Before PIN’s intervention, Aster’s household didn’t have a latrine. Now, they have a clean and safe latrine with a hand washing facility nearby.
Aster has started to clean the compound, collecting the tree leaves, cow dung, ash and other remains and disposing the waste properly. Aster composts the organic waste and uses it as fertilizer in their land.
The health of her family has improved radically. But the changes didn’t come all at once. The family habits have improved gradually through different training and awareness raising activities.
Aster is a role model for the community. Besides taking care of her family, she is a community mobiliser and a community conversation group leader.
“Life without knowledge and awareness is like living in dark. With poor health, people are not productive, hence, I hope many others take action and build toilets as well as practice safe hygiene,” added Aster.
Sanitation is not just about a building
Adanech Geta is a mother of five children, one boy and four girls, who live in Guttera village, located in the same district as Aster Alaro’s home. Adanech lives in a mud hut with a thatched roof. She spends most of her time taking care of the children and the house, providing food for the family, fetching water and taking care of the cattle. She also works on her small plot of land growing mainly maize.
Before People in Need (PIN) came to Guttera village, the nearby Chereche river was the only source of water for the community. On top of water scarcity, the community also lacked sanitation knowledge and access to hygiene facilities.
“We didn’t think of latrines as such an important thing as we do now. Nobody thought about the consequences of open defecation,” says Adanech. Adanech’s children were sickly, and the situation ended with tragic consequences. “I lost three children. It might have been due to our unhygienic lifestyle,” says Adanech.
Before, Adanech would spend most of her income on health expenses. At times, the family couldn’t afford one meal per day for all its members. In the dry seasons, they would sell all their livestock to be able to afford food.
PIN has started teaching the community ways of preventing diseases and is facilitating improved access to sanitation through a 'social marketing' technique. PIN has also started to rehabilitate and extend a water scheme to provide clean water to the community. “Sanitation is not about a building, but an attitude and a lifestyle,” Adanech says.
Read more about EU humanitarian aid to Ethiopia and on water and sanitation assistance on the European Commission's Humanitarian Aid and and Civil Protection department's website.
Source: europa.eu
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