What the heck is a Sanitation Committee?

For the past few months my organization has been partnering with UNICEF and AMURT (Ananda Marga Universal Relief Team) in efforts to improve sanitation practices and distribute knowledge of good hygiene habits. What this entails is basically mobilizing the community to build latrines for schools and teaching the kids to use them. Some simply had been defecating in the open, and although many are learning to use the latrines we’ve still got some work to do. It’s not the most glamorous work in the world, but it’s so important to give these kids a decent bathroom at schools! I know the US school system has its share of problems, but in comparison to the bamboo huts and one classroom schools without bathrooms I’ve been visiting, American primary schools are palaces.

Extracurriculars in the States consist of activities such as student government, organized sports teams, and chorus groups to develop leaders and give children constructive manners to spend their time. In Chibuto though, we’re not there yet. The schools are choosing about 15 kids from each school that demonstrate good behavior and leadership skills. These children are trained to be the Sanitation Committee. I like to think of it as the equivalent of Student Government in America, a bunch of overachieving students working together to make their school a better place. Community activists pull committee members aside during school and teach them good and bad hygiene practices, educating them about endemic sicknesses such as malaria, diarrhea, and cholera (there’s a cholera outbreak in our district right now so the work is very pertinent). The Sanitation Committee is responsible for encouraging other kids to wash their hands before eating, teaching you get cholera from dirty water, and for setting a good example for their peers. My first encounter with a Sanitation Committee was listening to them sing a song in the local dialect about diarrhea and how to avoid it…it was truly music to my ears, lemme tell ya.

The activists and latrine builders also hold assemblies with all the school children, leading an interactive discussion about why it’s important to use the latrines. UNICEF distributed illustrations of good and bad hygiene practices, which prove very effective at engaging the children into the material. Friday morning we were having a school assembly, and Maria, an activist was onstage talking about fazer-ing xixi in the latrine and the kids were so absorbed in the drawings it looked like they could have been watching a concert. I looked out from the stage and saw a sea of little faces peering at the illustrations and screaming answers to Maria’s questions, all pushing for a better view. I’m interested to see more of how this campaign develops and hope it successfully improves sanitation habits so that preventable sicknesses like diarrhea will cease to be responsible for so many deaths in the developing world.

I remember being very proud of Maria and Angelica, our two activists who were training the Sanitation Committee and teaching the entire school. The activists are both HIV positive women who are not very educated, living in a culture where women are not afforded equal rights with men, and live with the additional stigma that comes along with being HIV positive. But look at them and what they have chosen to dedicate their time and hearts to! The have not fallen into the potential binds of gender, sickness, or low education levels, but are rising to the occasion and overcoming the odds. They are alive and fighting admirably!