Tanzania
Improved sanitation
Helping families in Tanzania restore health with improved household toilets and hygiene
Water & Sanitation
The Need
Safe water and sanitation are essential to children’s well-being and development. Without these basic services, infectious diseases run rampant, driving child and maternal mortality rates and feeding the destructive cycle of poverty.
Issues accessing safe water and sanitation are no less prevalent in Ilula, a hilly town in Tanzania. In particular, the church identified 10 families without their own toilets or latrines. Many of these families are headed by single mothers, who live with their grandparents. This means the main providers are women and the elderly, which can result in a physical disadvantage when most of the work found in this community is wage labour at farms, stone quarries and brick production plants. They are physically unable to work extra hours for additional income to build latrines. These families are forced to defecate outside or ask to use their neighbours’ latrines, which impacts their sense of dignity and belonging in the community.
Further, there are no regular garbage disposals in the community, which means feces can pile up in the neighbourhood. Many caregivers also do not have regular hygiene practices such as washing their hands with soap between touching feces, handling food and touching their children’s faces. These issues cause chronic diarrhea in children, frequent school absences or compromised regular activities. Four out of 10 hospitalizations in the area are related to diarrhea, further signifying the importance of sanitation services and education.
Our church partner in Ilula worked with local authorities to run a community awareness campaign of the importance of using a toilet and safe sanitation practices. It provided training to caregivers, children and the community on how to avoid hygiene-related diseases. However, ten families in the community were unable to implement the training because they did not have access to a latrine in the home. Our church partner wanted to provide these families with improved pit latrines, as well as hygiene education for mothers and families. Such a simple solution can make an incredible difference in the lives of these families, but the local church needed outside help to implement their plan.
Our Response
Compassion identified, addressed and responded to this need in progressive steps. First, our church partner verified the beneficiary families, their construction sites, construction permits and approved sketches for each family’s toilet. Then, the church met with government health officers who advised on the required standards for household toilets. An inception meeting was held by the partnership facilitator and program support specialist and was attended by church leaders and elders, Compassion centre workers, committee leaders and project beneficiaries. They developed a proposal together and tendered bids from local masons and construction materials suppliers. The committee then discussed and bargained for a fair price.
Two of the ten families’ homes were not included in this intervention because their homes were flooded. The government prohibits development in areas prone to floods. The families are currently supported by the church in assisted housing. They are trying to find alternative plots on which to construct their homes and sanitation facilities using other resources from the church and other families.
The church worked with the eight remaining families and surveyed what each family could contribute. Families were happy to provide manpower for trenching the septic tank and laying down the building foundation and soft aggregates, and offered lunch for the contractors. This helped the intervention stay within budget and allowed the beneficiaries to participate in the project, which developed a sense of community ownership and autonomy over the project.
Compassion provided eight families with washrooms, complete with toilets, tiled floors and walls for easy cleaning and protection from flooding or other weather conditions. In addition to providing the physical toilets, Compassion also organized hygiene training. Sanitation and hygiene training involved the entire family; children and primary caregivers learned how and when to use water and soap to prevent cross-contamination.
Activities
Teamwork: Beneficiary family members helped where they could with the construction efforts, including providing unskilled labour such as digging the septic tank.
Toilet construction: Local construction workers were hired to build the toilets, line sewage pipes and set up septic tanks.
Improved toilets: These toilets were built with privacy, easy cleaning maintenance and long-term usage in mind. The washrooms have tiled walls, roofs and proper plumbing and are comfortable for the users.
Monitoring and evaluation: Site monitoring and evaluation of the project was critical. Beneficiaries, family members and the program support specialist discussed progress and feedback and adjusted the project accordingly during regular site visits.
Your Gift Provides...
Your support helped provide easy-to-clean sanitation facilities for eight families in Ilula, Tanzania:
• Toilets facilities:
o Building materials: block bricks, sand, water, iron bars and sheets, wire mesh
o Doors and windows
o Roofing, including, timber, beams and nails
o Tiles and paint
o Labour costs
• Hygiene training
• Reporting, monitoring and evaluation costs
ReportA message from those your gift helped
Previously, the toilet had no door, which meant we had no privacy. My household toilet that had no door was used by people who used to drink alcohol at my neighbour’s. The toilet was frequently contaminated. I used to regularly clean my toilet, but it was tiring because everybody was using it. Also, the toilet walls and roof were made of grass and sticks. When it rained we could not use it. And it had no privacy; women were highly scared of using this type of toilet.
Now I have an improved, flush toilet from the intervention which has a door and padlock. The floor is tiled, which makes it easy to clean. There’s enough privacy and safety, especially for women and children. We also regularly practise hand washing procedures because there is now a supportive facility to do so.
Improved basic sanitation and hygiene will improve our family’s health and future. I believe our children will not fall sick much anymore, which means they will not miss school and they will finally fulfill their academic aspirations. We will also share the knowledge we’ve gained to raise awareness in our community about the importance of improved toilets and how it improves sanitation practices and protects family health.
I have learned that the collaboration between the funder and the beneficiary is critical in fulfilling the desires of those who are in need. I have also come to realize there are enough resources in my community—I just need someone to enlighten me how to use these resources to address my challenges. I thank God that the church helped me understand this so I could support the project by contributing my available resources.
We really appreciate your support because with it my family’s need for a toilet was met. We will always offer our prayers to God for all of you. I believe our faithful God will reward you in due time.
ReportThank you for your generosity
Because of your gift, families have access to washrooms with improved latrines that are easy to maintain, don’t require too much water and have walls for privacy.
Families also regularly practise hand washing procedures, thanks to the training and workshops they received as a community. This has resulted in improved overall physical health in these families. This intervention has also increased the families’ happiness—physical health and emotional well-being are tightly interwoven! Where before, these families had to beg to use their neighbours’ latrines or resort to defecating in public, now they use clean, hygienic facilities in the privacy of their own homes.
Along with building physical toilets, this intervention also helped build these families’ confidence and self-esteem and set precedent for future self-led projects. These families used to be ridiculed for not having latrines in their homes, but now they are respected and are no longer seen as inferior in the community. They have also seen what they can accomplish with the little they have.
The church has also seen its reputation and influence grow. The church is now seen as a development partner by the government, as it’s the first church in the community to build improved toilets at the household level. This increases its reputation and legitimacy in the community, not only as an agent of change and ministry but also as a standard of excellence in sanitation. The church has also increased their confidence in their ability to negotiate, gather resources and allocate responsibilities to do great things together as a community.
Your gift of sanitation and hygiene has brought dignity, health and happiness to families who would not otherwise be able to practise safe sanitation. Armed with good hygiene practices, these families will be able to continue their good health into the future, allowing children to attend school and their Compassion centre, where they will receive life-changing care as they grow into all that God has planned for them.
ReportA message from a centre director
The health situation has improved in these families. Ever since the completion of this project, the beneficiaries have not experienced or reported any sanitation-related diseases. They are happier now and are no longer humiliated by their neighbours, who used to accommodate them when they had no toilets.
The church is now perceived as a development partner to the government. It is the first church in the community to provide improved toilets at the household level. It has also increased its reputation in the community, since the completed toilets serve as a benchmark for the community and government for what improved toilets look like.
As the church, we also now better understand how to mobilize caregivers in construction of improved toilets. This project has taught us that there are enough resources, even with what little the beneficiaries can do, to attend to their pressing needs. We have built the confidence that we can do great things in collaboration with caregivers. We have also helped other caregivers see that when they work with the church by contributing their resources, the church can easily attend to their needs even when there are little funds available.
The intervention has positively impacted the beneficiaries’ families. I want to extend my heartfelt gratitude for your commitment. Thank you for your financial support. Your generous contribution has enabled the church to provide this critical facility for these families’ well-being.