The Footprints funding for two Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) projects in Cambodia focused on specific objectives around schools and gender justice in Kratie and Preah Vihear districts.
Project Outcomes:
1. Better sanitation and hygiene through WASH facilities constructed, repaired and/or upgraded.
Hand washing units were built at 10 schools and 3 health centres.
Gender sensitive latrines were built in 10 schools to assist girls in attending school school throughout their monthly period.
25 communities gained access to improved water supply through existing installations repaired and new hand pumps built.
2. Changing children’s hygiene and health behaviours and taking that knowledge from school into the home .
Support was sought from school teachers in 19 target schools who then selected 85 peer students (68 girls) and 26 peer teachers (19 women) in Preah Vihea, and 50 peer students (30 girls) and 10 peer teachers (2 women) in Kratie.
Oxfam observed that students have changed hygiene behaviour by washing hands often.
Health staff have reported that the rates of WASH related disease have significantly decreased since the project started, and people are now going to hospital when they get sick, instead of praying at home.
After hygiene training, peer teachers have continued disseminating that knowledge to students and other teachers.
Additionally, 70 % of peer students reported that they have shared their knowledge to their friends and family.
3. Empower women by providing grants, tools and training to women’s groups to create their own WASH projects in their communities.
Members of the Women Wash Platforms (WWP) and Village Health Promoters visited a Latrine business where they learned about a new technique to produce lower cost latrines.
28 Women Wash Platform members participated in training on hygiene promotion, small proposal writing and book keeping.
Meetings were held in 16 villages of the Thmey and Sandan communes (Kratie province), to encourage women to to share health-related experiences and WASH practices.
These project activities are creating confident women who have strong facilitation skills and can talk about their WASH related problems in public and their own communities.
Women Wash Platform members fully participated in designing a start up plan for a latrine business and took the lead in developing small grant proposals.
In Kratie province, gender roles at the household level of women Village Health promoters have notably changed. Their husbands are starting to help their spouse on household work such as cooking and taking care of the small children.
Local community and government involvement
The commune councils and the district governors from the target districts supported the project by providing land for building the safe drinking water stations.
Local communities made contributions of their own cash and labour for construction works.
Photo: a community WASH meeting
Oxfam’s water, sanitation and hygiene program (WASH) program aims to increase the health of local communities through expanded access to safe water and sanitation and improved hygiene practices. Women and children are the biggest winners when it comes to accessing to clean water. Children are well enough to go to school and women have time to engage in small business projects and grow more food for their families
Specific school and gender justice objectives within WASH program in Kratie and Preah Vihear districts:
- To empower women’s participation and decision making in the WASH sector and services;
- To promote hygiene behaviour at schools and communities focusing on prevention of infectious diseases;
- To provide equitable access to improved water and sanitation facilities.
What we will achieve:
Better sanitation and hygiene
13 WASH facilities constructed, repaired and/or upgraded. All schools will have access to safe water sources, latrines installed, water filters and hand washing facilities
Changing hygiene behaviour
225 School children will acquire the knowledge of hygiene and sanitation at schools. They will use WASH facilities at schools and they will bring the concepts and the usefulness of having soaps, latrines, and water from their schools to their houses.
Empower women
We will work with Women’s WASH Platforms providing grants to women’s groups to create their own WASH projects in the community. We give them the tools they need to develop their proposals including training in financial management, proposal writing and leadership. This provides them with confidence and increases their participation in decisions that affect their lives. Additionally, it brings the business concept of enterprise development to women.
Photo: Community meeting to discuss WASH programs
Background on rural Cambodia
Cambodia is still overwhelmingly rural, with around 80% of the population living in rural areas. Access to clean water, dignified sanitation and improved hygiene is often unattainable for the millions of people living rurally. Lacking these staples of life, communities face an uphill battle to get out of poverty.
Every day, many people, usually women, spend hours collecting and boiling water to sanitise it from disease, but it isn’t always possible. Water-borne sicknesses force people to waste scarce resources on treatment, whilst work and educational opportunities suffer.
The Cambodian Millennium Development Goal [CMDG] for rural sanitation - 30% access to improved sanitation by 2015 - has purposely been set below the international MDG target of 53%, reflecting the challenges and slow pace of progress. The indicators reported by 2012 show that Cambodia is still far from reaching the MDGs for WASH.
A Real Story. Changing lives within a generation.
Photo: La Rong (8 years old), son of Kut Oeun & La Rouen washing his hands at a pump
Kut Oeun and her family received a water filter jar and support to build a latrine. Oeun mentioned that when they did not have a latrine, in rainy weather they would go to the toilet close to the house, which would then wash in to the river. They then use that water for washing and cooking.
Since being involved with Oxfam, the family is significantly less sick and the women feel safer. Oeun saves around 3 hours 3-4 times a week as she does not need to find firewood to boil water. Her son, La Rong, learns about hygiene and sanitation at school.
“It is good for my children. Their generation can learn about sanitation and clean water from the school. They have clean water to drink. For my generation, when I was in school, I didn’t know anything about it. I remember when I was young, when I was thirsty in the school I would just run to the river to get water to drink. Or sometimes I had a bottle that could store the river water in it and I could take it to the school and drink it. Sometimes I would just use my hand to scoop the water and drink it. I didn’t have clean water. I am so happy for my children, for this generation, that they have the toilet and clean water to drink. It is a really good for them; it is a lot better than for my generation.”Kut Oeun