What is the Sani-Initiative Project?
95% of rural communities in Biharamulo district have no access to improved pit latrines. As a result, open defecation practices are commonplace. The available latrines are in poor condition with a lack of roofing materials, using trees as a squatting slab, banana tree bark as walling materials, and with no doors. Thus these latrines offer poor privacy, safety, prestige and health for household members to use during a day and night time. The depth of the pits is also very small- leading to the pits becoming full within a short period of time.
This situation has a direct impact on the health of the population as the spread of diarrhea (which is ranked third among the top ten causes of mortality for under five children in Tanzania) is rapid and unconstrained. This poses a great burden on the families to overcome the poverty cycle as it directly affects their capacity to generate an income and fulfil their household duties. The poor hygiene practices undermine the health of all the family, especially the children. The poor latrine safety creates additional risks for women, children, and vulnerable groups.
Overall project objective
To provide a healthy environment and sustainable hygienic sanitation facilities to the communities of the Biharamulo District.
What makes this project unique?
Every day families come asking to build new toilets because they are afraid that in the rainy season, the traditional latrine they are currently using in their houses, will overflow and lead to the rapid spread of disease. But families cannot afford to build an improved toilet with their own resources, so they ask EEDS to improve their sanitary conditions.
The Sani- initiative project is therefore aiming to bridge the existing gap by training youth in latrine building and proposes a rotational fund where loans are given to families to build latrines, using the pay back (with minimum interest) to continue providing loans to other families, thus sustaining the project.
The Sani-Initiative is a sanitation solution offering affordable latrines with great safety, privacy and prestige to be used by all groups of people (including women, elderly and disabled people) and provides access to an integrated health and hygiene education awareness training. The project strives to create a community free of open defecation. Community beneficiaries will be asked to volunteer in the construction activities and provide available local materials needed for construction of the latrines. The supplied local materials will then be deducted from the actual cost of the improved latrine and allow them to take a latrine loan to finish the construction of the latrines. The rotating loan fund will then be used to provide similar services to the other rural community members.
The project will also facilitate entrepreneurship training targeting 500 rural women to equip them with entrepreneurship skills to set up a small business enabling them to pay back the loan. That way, the lives of 1000 community members and 500 children under the age of five years will be improved through the access to improved latrines contributing to a community free of open defecation.
Expected results/impact
1. Positive hygiene behaviour change for 1000 community members.
2. A community free of open defecation.
3. Improved health and well being of 500 children under the age of 5 years (by removing unsanitary conditions).
4. Create job opportunities and provide construction skills training for 30 local artisans.
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