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RedR 'WASH Week' focuses on essential water, sanitation and hygiene training in Haiti

04 May 2010

RedR 'WASH Week' focuses on essential water, sanitation and hygiene training in Haiti

As part of its programme to provide vital training to local aid workers in Haiti, international disaster relief charity RedR, has this week launched ‘Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Week’. The week will run from 3-7 May, delivering courses which cover a different WASH topic each day. It complements existing water, sanitation and hygiene training which is being delivered on an agency-by-agency basis.

The Disaster Response Support Services (DRSS) – the combined RedR and Bioforce training programme in Haiti - has so far focused on the areas of logistics, safety and security and telecommunications, in addition to WASH. Short workshops and bespoke on-the-job-training sessions have been delivered to a number of local and international aid agencies. Due to a high demand for WASH training from aid agencies operating in Port-au-Prince, ‘WASH Week’ will provide an intensive programme of interactive workshops each lasting half a day, that are available for all aid workers to attend. This training has been possible thanks to a donation given by Thames Water, which was designated for WASH activities.

The courses are being promoted to aid agencies through the UNICEF-led WASH Cluster (a system for coordinating humanitarian agencies and activities) and cover the essential WASH topics of Water-borne Diseases and Vector Control in Emergencies, Water Sources and Treatment in Emergencies, Excreta Disposal and Sanitation in Emergencies and Solid Waste Management in Emergencies. The response from aid agencies has been extremely positive and all five workshops are expected to be fully booked. Participants who attended the first workshop on Monday, which covered water-borne diseases, felt the information gained was extremely useful for their work. One of course participants comments: “The training has given me ideas of how I can get rid of mosquito breeding grounds – like puddles of water. I have information now that I can pass onto my colleagues”. Another participant stated that following the workshop they were going to start a programme to held get rid of contagious diseases.

The workshops aim to ensure that solutions for water, sanitation and hygiene are suitable, effective and sustainable, based on existing practices and with input from local communities. The training has been designed to incorporate knowledge gained so far from the response in Haiti, including recommendations of best practice given in a recent study which looked at sanitation options for the country.

Urgent need for clean water, sanitation and hygiene promotion
With over a million people left homeless and currently living in temporary settlements, one of the most urgent interventions in the aftermath of the January 12 earthquake in Haiti has been ensuring the provision of safe water and sanitation. Equally important is the prevention of the outbreak of communicable diseases such as cholera and acute diarrhoea, in the densely populated camps and devastated communities, through effective hygiene promotion and education. While many people now have access to clean water, providing adequate sanitation facilities for the thousands in the makeshift camps still poses huge challenges for aid agencies. Its now only a matter of time before the cyclone season begins and then disease control really will be a matter of life and death.

Hygiene promotion training making a difference
Magdala jean Babtiste is a Haitian teacher currently working for Save the Children as an Education Coordinator. Her work involves liaising closely with educational representatives, children and communities. Magdala recently took part in RedR’s hygiene promotion training.

She comments: “I really learnt a lot from this training! I realised that simple everyday acts can play an important part in saving – or claiming - lives when it comes to hygiene and disease prevention. The entire community has a big responsibility in managing their environment and the cleanliness of communities and camp sites.”

Because of her close work with schools and local community groups Magdala and her team are ideally placed to provide information about the importance good hygiene practices to prevent deadly disease outbreaks and Magdala has been passing on what she learnt: “I’ve replicated what I learnt on the RedR training course to our community mobilisation teams who then in turn have run hygiene education in schools; for the school heads, teachers, students and parental committees. In total we have educated 1,228 people who will each teach 30 people in their community about the importance of good hygiene practices to help prevent disease outbreaks. That will mean we reach 36,840 Haitians on the basis of this one important training.”

DRSS has been in Haiti since February and to date has provided training for 327 people from agencies such as Save the Children, Oxfam, UNICEF, Christian Aid, Action Contre la Faim, Haitian Red Cross, Tearfund and GOAL. With an emphasis on developing the skills of local aid workers, so far 94 per cent of trainees have been Haitian.

‘WASH Week’ continues the focus of the DRSS to build local capacity within the aid community in Haiti and means those who are still displaced as a result of the earthquake have a better chance of receiving clean water and adequate sanitation facilities.

RedR would like to thank Thames Water and all other companies and individuals for their donations to the programme. For details of all donors and for more information about RedR’s programme in Haiti or to make a donation, please visit www.redr.org.uk/Haiti, email fundraising@redr.org.uk or call 020 7840 6000.

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