Rationale

Nationwide a lot of progress is going on. However, there still has a lot of work that needs to meet the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6 in providing universal access to clean water and sustainable sanitation by 2030. Although there is access to facilities, the quality of these facilities is inadequate, and there is still a lack of awareness among the people. The physical conditions observation was not enough; people’s behavior needs to be changed to improve hygiene practices and reduce exposure to infectious diseases and medical treatments costs.

The indigenous community living in Mushohorpara, residing 8-10 km away from Dinajpur, has poor hygiene and sanitation conditions. A significant number of the community women work in the fields where access to hygienic toilets and water is highly inadequate. Due to the lack of toilets in the area, the women used the open field. There was an acute need for tube wells and bathrooms in the area as currently; there is a significant problem in hygienic sanitation practices and menstrual hygiene management. So, work was needed to be done in this area to promote hygiene knowledge and personal awareness and improve access quality of the facility. Thus the purpose of this program was to create an understanding of sanitation and hygiene practices along with building proper hygienic toilets for the community members in Dinajpur.

Objective

Addressing the sanitation and hygiene practices of the community members in Dinajpur

Activity Details

Volunteer Training

The volunteer training has been organized, and twenty volunteers from Dinajpur and Rangpur districts were joined. In training, community project implementation objectives and goals have been shared and formed a team to work in their locality.

Community Engagement and Awareness

Trained volunteers were organized and facilitated a courtyard meeting with community people. In the courtyard meeting, they explained hygiene toilet etiquettes, CLTS approach, provided leaflets. Beside, explaining the sanitation management and hygiene practice. Pre-assessment tests have been taken on their existing hygiene knowledge. The core objective was-

• To be aware of sanitation and hygiene management.
• To motivate the community people to maintain good hygiene practice.
• To bring a behavioral change among community people.

In all participants, the male-female ratio was 4:1. After the awareness session, the community members were divided into eight groups for eight toilets operations and maintenance in their locality. Then again, a post-assessment was taken to know their awareness level on hygiene practice. And found a fruitful result of behavioral change issue.

Community based Model Toilet Establishment

The 8 community base model toilets have been established for ethnic community people at Moshohorpara, Dinajpur district. The toilets have a depth of 8 cubicles and an overall size of 5’5 square feet. With this a tube well has also been installed for water supply. That’s whole project has been implemented through the JAAGO’s volunteer wing and volunteer for Bangladesh (VBD)’s Dinajpur and Rangpur district. Also, it was a good recommendation and suggestion from the local authority (Union Parishad Chairman) and community people.