“One of the things that made us successful in this project is involving women. We got different ideas from them and since they are also part of the kebele leadership, it was easy for us to influence the community and make decisions.”
Lijalem Ayal has worked as a manager at the health centre in Woynima for 2 years. The health centre faced huge challenges as it did not have clean water, sanitation and hygiene facilities. He told us what his day-to-day work was like before our Jabi Tehnan project:
“My name is Lijalem Ayal. I am a manager at Woynima Health Centre. I am married and have children. As it is convenient for my work, I live here, but my wife and children live in Finote Selam Town. It’s been two years since I joined the health centre. I have worked in this health centre for the past two years.
When I joined this health centre, the major problem was not having improved toilets, both in the health centre and among communities.”
Once the project began and WaterAid began work on the ground, Lijalem was selected to help get the community involved in physical construction, training and workshops. A key part of this task was to encourage members of the community to build toilets. He noticed that women were the most effected by the lack of proper toilets, and so made sure to include them in decision-making:
“When WaterAid brought its project here, I was assigned to coordinate the three cluster kebeles (Firat, Mankussa and Ergeb) of the area so that the work can be done in collaboration with the community. One thing I noticed while doing this is that there is strong women’s participation in this area, and most of the women were involved in decision-making processes as well. They even requested us to make their husbands construct improved toilets at the household level, as the men were not that much up to it. Because of this, we have been very successful, especially in Firat and Mankussa.”
He also told us about the problems he faced trying to ensure that this community had access to toilets:
“In this area, men spend most of their time on the farm work as it is their main source of income to support their family. So, when their wives asked them to spend some time to construct the toilets, they were not willing. When the women noticed that they sought out our help. We then went house-to-house and convinced the men about the use of having toilets in the household level. We only have three households of peoples with disabilities, and these households constructed an inclusive toilet.
The main challenge when making people construct their own toilets was the topography of the area. For example, Firat is dry, and the ground is rocky and mountainous. As a result, it was very difficult for the community to dig deeper than 1 metre. The standard for a toilet is to be at least 3 metres deep. On the other hand, the other two kebeles Adanhegn and Ergeb have black soil which is highlyprone to erosion. These places usually suffer from landslide during the rainy season. Many people were complaining that the toilets they built the previous year have now eroded and as a result they are digging a new one now.
For such kinds of problems, the main solution is to support the pit with concrete or stone. However, many people in the area can’t afford such kinds of construction materials. So, the solution for these people is either to make the hole a cup shape or to cut a barrel and place it in the pit as a support. We told the people these methods and we also reminded them about this on our recent meeting with the community. We have also shown this to the community technically.
The other challenge we face specifically in the towns is lack of space. Though we have an action plan to work with the community living in the towns, the masterplan is becoming a bottleneck for us. Even if they want to dig and construct their own toilets, they don’t have space. Most of the houses are constructed very closely to one another and this is making the work challenging for us.”
Despite the challenges, Lijalem and other’s hard work paid off. The Woynima health centre now has access to clean water and a toilet block with handwashing facilities. Many members of the community followed his lead and built toilets:
“[Previously,] Woynema had a total of 1884 households and among these around 18 households had improved toilets. Among the 1156 households in Firat only 10 households had improved toilets. And 18 households in Ergeb had improved toilets among 416 households. After WaterAid implemented its project here, now there are 1168, 868 and 100 improved toilets in Woynima, Firat and Ergeb respectively.
A household can use a toilet for 7-10 years and then they can dig another one and shift to the new one.”
Lijalem told us about the ways he and the community has benefited from coming together to complete this project:
“One of the things that made us successful in this project is involving women. We got different ideas from them and since they are also part of the kebele leadership, it was easy for us to influence the community and make decisions.
I have benefited a lot from this project. I’ve earnt that we can improve people’s life and health as long as we work very closely and in collaboration with the community. For example, intestinal parasites were the number one common disease of the area last year, but now we have improved a lot in this, and we have reduced the number of people who are suffering from the disease. The community was very much motivated to participate in the work. They are very much thankful for the trainings provided to them whenever we visited the communities.
Working in collaboration and in partnership is key for the success of such projects. We appreciate WaterAid for this because we worked very closely and made this project successful.”