Children drive community development

Sanjaya, the chairperson of Sayapatri Child Club, is proud his club has helped make his village free from open defecation despite the opposition they faced from older people.

The children’s club in the small village of Bakrahadhar, eastern Nepal, played a crucial role in changing attitudes in the community to sanitation, with assistance from Plan and local partner NEWAH.

Vice-chairperson Melina explained how children helped: “We drew cartoons of people who defecated in the open and posted then on the public notice board.”

Every morning children whistled at and drew cartoons of offenders. They conducted weekly cleaning and organised rallies and home visits. On the notice board, records were kept of which families had or had not constructed a latrine and whether they were using it properly.

The members of Sayapatri Child Club gave an award for the best latrine, on criteria such as quality of construction and materials, cleanliness and accessibility to children. After judging all the latrines in the village, they gave the award to Kamala Dhimal, presenting her with soap, a soap case, a water bucket and a toilet brush.

Chairperson of the village Sanitation Committee Tek Bahadur Rai said: “I appreciate the children’s role in the whole process of making the community clean and building latrines. Without their contribution it would not have been possible.

“Declaring the village open defecation-free is a matter of prestige. There was a time when people had to hold their noses in our village. This was a source of shame for us.”

Now the villagers clean the village path each Saturday. “It is a challenge for us to maintain cleanliness and to upgrade our latrines,” explained local Dil Bahadur.

Already some families have upgraded their latrines and others plan to in the near future. Everybody now understands that open defecation, unhygienic behaviour and haphazard rubbish disposal degrades the environment, adversely affecting health and quality of life.

Kamala Rai said, “Since the construction of latrines defecation has become easier for all, especially for children and women. Now everyone defecates safely even on a rainy day or at night.”

About Community-Led Total Sanitation

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