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: Village 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 Objectives:
- Increase access to clean water, sanitation and hygiene.
- Empower women and reduce gender WASH inequity.
- Support local people and government to provide adequate WASH services.
What we will achieve:
Safe water supplies.
Over 50% of households in 25 communities will have access to improved water supply. Water and sanitation facilities will be constructed or repaired in 3 health centers and 10 schools.
Better sanitation and hygiene
Health promoters will conduct awareness campaigns in 71 villages. Over 50% of community members and school children will have access to improved or new latrines. 100% of girls in schools we work with will have access to gender-sensitive sanitation facilities.
Changing hygiene behaviour
Safe water storage, change habits that will reduce risk to transmit WASH related diseases, training to children and community members about better hygiene practices.
Train local communities and government.
We will ensure local communities and government agencies have the tools, knowledge and skills to they need to provide WASH services. We will train government counterparts and encourage 11,250 villagers to participate in WASH awareness campaigns.
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. This provides them with confidence and increases their participation in decisions that affect their lives.
"I learned about Hygiene at school - how to wash my hands... about clean water. I used to get sick with diarrhoea because I drank dirty water. Since I learnt about hygiene, I have never been sick" Photo: Timothy Herbert/OxfamAus
Background information
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.
Oxfam works in Kratie province, Chetr Borey and Sambo Districts – remote, rural areas of Cambodia where a high percentage of the population does not have access to safe drinking water.
Oxfam ‘s water, sanitation and Hygiene program (WASH), is working with communities and the government to build sustainable clean water systems and latrines, while improving community hygiene and infrastructure management skills
A Real Story. Changing lives can be as easy as a water filter.
Photo: timothy Herbert/OxfamAus
“Oxfam taught me about how to use clean water, how to use the water filter and toilet and how to practice good hygiene-to clean around my house and hand washing. I received a water filter and a toilet … I teach [my children] how to use the toilet and how to use the water filter. [They] study and practice hygiene at school. The teacher shows them the way to wash their hands … they don’t have disease like before.”
Van Sineth, Mum of Three, Veal Sambo Village
“Before I use to drink water from the well directly. All my family did not have a good health. We often had diarrhea… about 2-3 times a month” she explains. "During that time I spent a month treating my son, and sold land to get enough money for treatment”
"After I received the filter, my family’s health is better; we have no diarrhea anymore. I save the money that I used to spend on medicine. My husband can go to work and I can plant vegetables and fruit trees around my house. I can also catch some small fish to sell.
I use this money to buy rice. All this change means my family has enough rice to eat. This is different to before, when my family did not have enough rice for about 3 months each year.”