sustainability drinks #8 - wash united
TRANSCRIPT
Education as a way to foster sustainability:
‘Keeping it clean’ through fun, games & advocacy!
Danielle KeiserWASH United – Berlin
Wednesday, January 14, 15
About WASH United • Berlin-based NGO with teams in
Kenya & India
• Our focal areas
I. Advocacy
II. Trainings
III. Demand creation
IV. Human rights to water & sanitation
• Our 4 “special ingredients”:
• Sport & game-based tools
• Positive messaging
• Superstar role models
• Creative expertise
Sanita&on!
Hand-‐washing with soap!
Menstrual Hygiene
Management!(MHM)
Wednesday, January 14, 15
WHY?
• Everybody deserves the chance to live a happy & healthy life
• Having WASH is essential for that
• Our main goal: to help turn WASH for all into a reality within our lifetime.
Wednesday, January 14, 15
Facts & figures: Sanitation & hygiene
Hand-washing with soap is not practiced widely &
consistently enough
Diarrhoea caused by dirty water, poor sanitation & bad hygiene
kills more children than malaria,
measles & HIV/AIDS combined
~ 2.5 billion people lack access to improved sanitation
~ 1 billion practice
open defecation
There is a general lack of awareness that diseases are
linked to open defecation
Wednesday, January 14, 15
Facts & figures: Menstrual Hygiene
1/3 girls in South Asia knew nothing about their periods prior to
getting them
Materials like mud, leaves, sand & even
animal skins are used to manage their periods
Poor access to toilets, water & soap makes it difficult to maintain good personal hygiene
Girls can miss up to 3 school days a month because of their periods
Many girls believe that menstruation is a disease
70% of women in India cannot afford
sanitary pads
Wednesday, January 14, 15
How do we tackle these problems?
• We work to advance the realisation of the human rights to water & sanitation
• Providing ‘hardware’ is simply not enough. Not about charity, but about long-term change
• Ex. India’s unused toilets
• Change begins with education & awareness
• We develop innovative ‘software’ solutions that sustainably aim to change attitudes & behaviours
Wednesday, January 14, 15
WASH in Schools (WinS) Curricula
• WASH knowledge delivered
through fun, interconnected games that explore:
– why using a toilet is so important
– how germs are spread
– how to effectively wash hands with
soap
• “Learning-through-play” is a
sustainable, effective way to
retain information
• Have trained 140,000 kids across
S. Asia & Sub-Saharan Africa
Musical Toilets
World Toilet Cup
Hand-washing Challenge Wednesday, January 14, 15
MHM Curricula
• Activities & fun games for girls, boys & teachers respectively
• Important training of teachers (ToT) component
• Empowering participants to break the silence around the ‘taboo’
• Have trained kids in India, Kenya, Bangladesh
Physiological health education
Educating boys
Knocking Down the Myths
Wednesday, January 14, 15
200+ worldwide partners to date!
• Open platform driving advocacy
around a neglected issue
• Raises awareness & creates a unified voice
• Multi-sectoral: NGOs, social
businesses, research institutes,
activists, community orgs, etc.
• Events, global collaboration
& media coverage
Wednesday, January 14, 15
• Working with ‘icky’ issues like sanitation requires
innovative & sustainable thinking
• There’s more to development than just providing
the hardware; sustainability is in the software
• Long-term success comes with behaviour change
• What can you do?
• Do your part: use your own resources to help
spread the word about sanitation & hygiene
• Join us on May 28 in acknowledging MH Day!
Take Aways
Challenge
Wednesday, January 14, 15
Danielle Keiser Communications & Partnership Management [email protected]
Denise Reck Project [email protected]
www.wash-united.org www.menstrualhygieneday.org
Thank you!
Contact us!
Facebook.com/WASHUnited Twitter.com/WASHUnited
Wednesday, January 14, 15