The 2014 Compone Implementation Trip: Hygiene Habits for Kids

A study of children's hand washing behavior in the region estimated that less than a third of children regularly wash their hands before eating and after using the bathroom (Lopez-Quintero, Freeman, Neumark, 2009).  In the same sample, only seven percent had access to soap and clean running water at school.  While our team didn't systematically measure hand washing behaviors in Compone, we could see the need staring at us from underneath nearly every child's fingernails.  The community clinic director, Lucmilla, suggested that dental hygiene presented another educational opportunity.  

The PHWB team organized children's health education activities at the community health clinic, municipal building, and community meetings.   Stephanie O. and Priya facilitated four workshops reaching over a hundred children.  Using songs, games, and hands-on practice, they taught children how to properly wash their hands and brush their teeth.  They led children in rousing renditions of "Lava tus manos," an instructional hand washing ditty sung to the tune of La Cucaracha.  Shakira's "Waka Waka" marked the recommended two-minute toothbrushing timeframe, the last noble act of Priya's iPhone before it was stolen.

They also addressed clean water and water conservation, hoping to teach young people about the importance of water. 

This photo shows the last of 10,000 times Stephanie and Priya led children in "Lava tus manos."

The 2014 Compone Implementation Trip: Oral Rehydration Therapy

While Compone residents felt that water sanitation is important, the community president and others insisted that the water was already clean.  The president described Compone's water as potable when, in fact, recent water tests showed levels of coliform well above recommended limits in all samples.  In addition to the discrepancy between beliefs about water quality and actual measures, community members were more strongly concerned with water issues like flow rate, quantity, fairness in distribution, and conservation than with water quality.  

Community members recognized that water often causes diarrhea, but the mechanisms through which water becomes contaminated were not well understood.  Simple prevention strategies, moreover, were not often practiced.  We were ourselves seldom able to access running water, soap, and a dry towel and never observed others washing hands.  Outhouses are the norm in Compone homes.

Pigs, cows, sheep, water fowl, and dogs are everywhere in the community, their excrement scattered like little poop mines on the roads and paths and within living compounds.  Little delineation between indoor and outdoor spaces cements the ubiquity of animal excreta, a new addition to my tiny Spanish vocabulary that I will never forget. When people do get sick, they told us the problem is easily solved by going to the nearby health clinic for medicine.  The time and financial burdens of seeking treatment are so low, prevention is a low priority.

That paragraph seemed like a good excuse to post some of my animal pics.

Improving skills for a plan B career in shepherding.

Although we had already planned to talk with households about water quality, these insights helped the PHWB team rethink our health education activities.  Graciela and Greg facilitated four workshops with nearly 100 adults about water sanitation, preventing water-borne disease, and preparing oral rehydration therapy (ORT) or "homemade Gatorade," as it was known to the engineers.  After demonstrating the simple ORT preparation, we distributed ORT recipes and liter containers to participants.  
 

The 2014 Compone Implementation Trip: Community Work Day

Since the worksite is located at the top of a mountain, moving materials for the project proved challenging.  With the community president promising 30 helpers, a community work day was organized.  Our team was cautiously optimistic that a substantial number of people would show up, but we feared solid days of carrying materials ahead if they didn’t.  Due to the efforts of community leaders and Graciela, 47 community members arrived to help!  People, young and old, carried a cubic meter of sand, a cubic meter of gravel, over 200 cinderblocks, several one hundred-pound bags of cement, and an enormous water tank up to the site.  This volume of materials really helped us understand what the air at 12,000 feet is like.

Half way up the hill!

Meanwhile, others excavated the site to make room for the materials and the chlorination system, digging for over five hours.

The community work day was a success, enabling the engineering team to pour a concrete pad the next day.  The work day also resulted the second of several community meetings about the project.  This meeting produced a commitment of several volunteers per day to the engineering team’s construction efforts, and the community members voted to fine households that didn’t help out!