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How sad I had to miss the Pan Africa Sharing and Learning Workshop (see other blogs to find out more about what went on there) and the ODF sustainability research methodology in Accra Ghana. Good to read all about it and to hear from Philip (my colleague) that it was great there. It is amazing that Africa and Kenya have become a beehive of CLTS activities all with the focus of getting rid of open defecation practice which takes lives of many children every year.
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From the 27th February to the 1st March, I was attending the Pan Africa CLTS workshop in Accra Ghana. The workshop was sponsored by Plan Netherlands and was facilitated by Prof. Robert Chambers and Petra Bongartz of IDS. 8 countries namely, Ghana, Niger, Sierra Leone, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Malawi and Zambia participated in the workshop.
Let me share something that struck me strongly during the annual review workshop of the Pan African programme Empowering self-help sanitation of rural and peri-urban communities and schools in Africa which took place in Accra between the 27th February and 1st March 2012.
The four day inter-country review meeting which brought together all the Pan African CLTS program implementing countries has just been concluded. Each participant was tasked to mention in plenary at least 3 key learnings and take-home points. A great majority of the participants mentioned the role of the media, Sanitation Marketing and the actual meaning of action Learning as key learnings.
Going for Community led total sanitation field visits are a big plus for me. The exposure to different communities cultural ways, sanitation practices, culinary methods as you smell their delicacies on the verandah’s while passing their mobile kitchens, and the unmistakable smile of a child, leaves one with sights and sounds engraved in the heart for a long time.
Imagine an open room, lined up with 7 pit latrine squat holes and 7 people can actually defecate in here at the same time! This is what happens in Namandwa village, Ghana- where we have been for a field visit today. The village was triggered and in a bid to stop open defecation, they constructed communal latrines which are separate for men and women.
Yesterday was another exciting of the 4 day Pan-African CLTS Review meeting days. We had an opportunity to undertake a field visit to one of Plan Ghana’s operational areas in the Central Region. It took us close to two hours to reach Amafum Community. We had a warm reception which was followed by formal greetings. The community has a total population of 1,200 people comprising of 220 households.
Participants were divided into 4 groups to discuss the different expectations that were pulled from all the participants during the first day of the meeting.
The expectations were grouped as follows:
- Natural Leaders
- Sanitation Marketing
- Children and SLTS
- Scaling Up
Today was another exciting field experience in rural Ghana communities. We were split in two groups and it took our group two hours to reach the first community, Amaful. This is a village with a population of around 1,200, quite a big size compared with most Sub Saharan countries. Plan Ghana is working with a local NGO named TREND to promote sanitation and hygiene through CLTS approach.
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