Rhino Camp
Refugees in Rhino Camp Refugee Settlement as well as benefitting host communities have
praised Malteser International (MI), a humanitarian INGO, for introducing dome-shaped slabs
for pit latrine construction after years of suffering with other short-lasting materials which
lead to consistent collapses of the latrines.
A smiling Mary Dawa from Ofua I village in Rhino Camp Refugee Settlement was pleased with the
support provided by MI after using the new structure for seven months: “I built this latrine myself and
we are very happy and comfortable with it, because the slab is strong and long lasting and It is easy to
wash,” she said. Dawa predicts that her family of nine dependants will now take up to a decade without
having to look for new materials for covering a new latrine. Previously, she says, her family had to look
for materials from very distant bushes, which posed a security risk for her and her family, and every time
they constructed a latrine it always collapsed in less than two years.
The dome shaped pit latrine slabs were introduced by MI after a careful assessment of the hygiene and
sanitation situation in the settlements, according to Eng. Alfred Chandonga, the project coordinator.
They pose one of the safest technologies for disposing human waste. He says that besides moving long
distances to collect materials for the latrine construction, the general scarcity of trees and the effect
of termites also posed great challenges to the refugees, so much so that many refugees and host
community members shared a single latrine, thereby increasing the risk of disease outbreak.
In order to mitigate those risks and to support refugees and host communities in resolving their hygiene and sanitation issues, MI established a sustainable supply of dome shaped slabs by training local youth groups in their production while at the same time providing some previously unemployed with a new livelihood opportunity.
“We were trained for five days in the production of the slabs and later started
producing the slabs locally. People are very happy and thankful for the livelihood
opportunity provided by MI. Furthermore, it is also a lot better for the environment as there are only few trees remaining in our area and we now don’t have to cut down the remaining ones. That’s why we
thank Malteser for bringing this training on the production of the dome shaped pit latrine slabs to our village” says David Malice, one of the team leaders of the production group in Ofua II.
On a personal level, Malice says, the training and eventual production work of the slabs has helped to increase his family income. He uses the money he earns from making the slabs to pay his children’s
school fees and to buy scholastic materials as well as supporting other
family needs.
Another member of the slab production team, Simon Yosa, says the work saved him from idleness while also providing an opportunity to help a community in dire need: “Before the coming of this project, I was just staying home but whenI was brought to the slab production centre, things changed so much. The overall situation of latrine coverage in our community has now completely changed”, Yosa asserts.To guarantee the effective implementation of intended WASH outcomes as well as to address the
community’s hygiene and sanitation issues, Malteser International takes a two-
pronged approach according to Mudasiri Atiku, a field assistant.
One of the approaches is through MI’s engagement and facilitation of 80 village health teams (VHTs) who go from home to home in order to mobilize the communities and raise awareness on important WASH measures that can be implemented at household level.
In addition, the VHTs are charged with the responsibility to make sure that the community comply with the set hygiene and sanitation standards, and they are the first point of contact for the sick and serve as a referral mechanism to the local health centers. In addition to providing a financial facilitation to the VHTs, MI provides them with capacity building and trains them in the use of data collection tools that help them submit up-to-date reports.
The second approach, dubbed Community Led Total Sanitations (CLTS) is an approach utilized by a broad range of stakeholders to tackle sanitation issues. Since 2011 also the Ugandan government has been promoting and utilising the approach and has allocated funding through the Ministry of Water
and Environment to support 50 districts in that regard. CLTS is a bottom-up approach which facilitates communities to conduct their own appraisal and analysis of open defecation, mobilizing people to identify and find solutions to their sanitation and hygiene needs. CLTS encourages people to take action to improve their situation by utilizing local knowledge, technology and innovation
Atiku says through the two approaches, MI has effectively worked with communities to significantly reduce
cases of poor hygiene and sanitation as well as cases of open defecation in the communities. The same result has also been observed by Juma Leni, a VHT from Ofua II.
Alfred Mandela, another VHT from Ofua II zone, says their home-to-home visits to advise and sensitise people, especially those that do not have hand washing facilities, plate racks, rubbish pits, etc.have yielded fruit and that the joint efforts with MI have greatly improved the hygiene and sanitation situation in the settlement.
A constant challenge, however, in the communities, is the inadequacy of hand washing due to the lack of so-called tippy-taps. The local communities complain that the 5l jerrycans necessary for the tippy-tap construction that had been provided in earlier distribution had been destroyed due to the intense sun light. To respond to that gap, MI has incorporated the distribution of 5 liter jerrycans for tippy-tap construction into a new project top-up and will supply them to the refugees in need, once donor approval has been granted. In the coming years, MI plans to continue to support communities through its VHT and CLTS approach as well as ongoing and close monitoring to ensure continued positive outcomes and engage in
continuous dialogue with and feedback sharing from the beneficiaries.
