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Health and Hygiene: Empowering Communities

Monday, November 30th, 2009
by LWI Editor

RWANDA

We know that clean water is the foundation for all other types of community development, but it isn’t just because people need clean water to drink. Many benefits of clean water come when the communities we serve understand and value good hygiene practices—things we in the Western world do EVERY DAY but don’t even think about, like washing our hands, brushing our teeth, and using a toilet. In fact, lack of proper sanitation is the single biggest cause of infection worldwide.

LWI is working to change that, and we’re doing it with the help of partners like Saddleback Church’s Clean Water Initiative (CWI), led by Carolyn and Larry McBride. One thing that CWI does is provide community development hygiene training to Rwandan nationals. These fun, interactive training sessions empower villagers to identify and resolve their own hygiene and sanitation issues.

In July and August, folks from Saddleback traveled to Africa to teach this two-day curriculum to more than 100 Rwandan nationals. They provided 10 backpacks with lessons and teaching aids for the Rwandan trainers to use in teaching health & hygiene to their own communities. Now they are prepared to show other communities how to understand and value good hygiene practices.

Click on the pictures below to take a look at how hygiene training is conducted in a place like Rwanda.

: Students enjoyed looking through a magnifying glass for the first time. They were surprised to learn about invisible germs that make people sick.

: Tippy Taps make hand washing convenient and use a small amount of water. Students learned how to recycle plastic containers into Tippy Taps.

: Oral Rehydration Solution (ORS) saves lives by rehydrating children who suffer from diarrhea. Each student received their own ORS measuring spoon.

: Puppets make it easier to talk about yucky things like worms and parasites.

: Students learn about the 3 major food groups and use pictures to plan balanced meals.

: One hundred teachers are now prepared to provide health & hygiene training in neighboring communities through the churches.

5 Responses to “Health and Hygiene: Empowering Communities”

Bob Says:
December 6th, 2009 at 3:21 pm
Pastor David Parker included this “need” in his sermon subject this morning (6Dec). It is amazing what $10 will do. Let us pray that collectively we can spread the “Living Water”
Zan Smith Says:
December 9th, 2009 at 12:22 pm
Our EWB chapter is also working in Rwanda. Our communities could also use health and hygiene training. Do you make these training materials available to others; either as complete kits or as list of materials and class session information?
jacob mcleish Says:
March 2nd, 2010 at 1:25 pm
contact larry or carolyn mcbride through http://cleanwaterinitiative.giving.officelive.com/default.aspx
Jodi Mohney Says:
March 8th, 2010 at 12:34 pm
LWI offers Hygiene training once every quarter. http://www.water.cc\health-and-hygiene
We freely allow others to use these materials once they have attended a LWI training session. There is so much more to the information then just the materials. I head up the hygiene training for LWI and would be happy to talk to anyone who is interested.
The story listed above is an example of a group taking the training then using it with their own ministry.
Dennis Sutton Says:
March 11th, 2010 at 11:11 am
Hi Jodi;
I talked to you on phone last week, we are looking into sending people for the hygene taining. Can they get that training even if they are not planning a trip just yet? Also is there any thought of having the pump repair trainig in Zeeland. The travel cost to Houston is pretty steep, we may have several people intrested in that, and do they have to have a trip in place before they get the trainig?
Thanks, Dennis