Supporting 7 Villages

Project location: India, Madhya Pradesh
Project start date: November 2008 - Project end date: October 2010
Project number: 2008-12
Beneficiary: HARITIKA

Project Report from November 2008 to May 2009

To accomplish the proposed outcome within the  stipulated time schedule, we have adopted participatory approach at each level of implementation and achieved following progress towards proposed outcome-:
1. Providing Sanitation Facility by Constructing Individual Twin pit Latrine cum Bathroom-: We have to construct total 264 Individual Twin pit Latrine cum Bathroom within the first financial year. Among which, we have completed construction work of 177 latrines cum bathroom in three villages i.e. Khakhri Veerpura, Salampur & Saderi. The other constructions are under processing and are to be completed within next 2 months.

2. Providing access to safe water by constructing 24*7 Water Supply System-: In village Saderi boring & construction work of Pump House has been completed while the Water tank construction is ongoing which is to be completed in subsequent month. In remaining four project villages i.e. in Kulwara, Khakri Veerpura (Main), Khakri Veerpura (Patel) & Bareth also, for which there was only funding for latrine cum bathroom construction, we have constructed water supply system and provided water facility to the villagers by our own effort, by budget from other funding agencies and by community contribution. Constructions in three villages i.e. in Kartual, Kukrail & Bhakhran, yet not have been started due to unavailability of fund. As soon the budget will be allocated, construction will be started in remaining two villages.

3. Formation of Village Water & Sanitation Committee-: As in village Saderi, water supply system construction work is now going to be complete thus for the maintenance and Participation of community, which is to be benefited by the scheme, we have formed Village Water & Sanitation Committee (VWSC). There are 13 members in this committee who will be responsible for financial management & maintenance of water supply system. The four villages in which we have constructed water supply system, VWSC have been formed for smooth functioning of system. Although, in remaining three villages construction work has not been started but we have conducted several meetings for community contribution & also for selecting VWSC members as by their support, it will be uncomplicated to implement the project in villages.

4. Capacity Building of Village Water & Sanitation Committee-: VWSCs of all the proposed 7 villages have been trained on account keeping, hygiene and sanitation, holding meetings, leadership development etc. They have also been trained about their roles and responsibility towards mentainance of water supply system.

5. Hygiene Promotion Activities in Villages-: Providing sanitation facility & water facility is not only the solution of the basic problem in villages i.e. hygiene related issues because there is need of behavioral change in the villagers. By keeping it in concentration, we have organized several hygiene promotional activities which are as follows-:

• Hand Washing Campaign-: Since children act as change agent in the society so for hygiene promotion at basic level, we have organised two events of Hand Washing Campaign in all the eight proposed villages. In this campaingn we have made them understand about the importance of hygiene in life need of hand washing.
• Wall painting-: Through wall painting we have tried to communicate about various hygiene behaviors, treatment of these behaviors in regular habit & about the use of sanitary latrines to the beneficiary villages. For this, two wall paintings each have been done in all the eight villages.

6. WATER QUALITY TESTING LABORATORY & COMMUNITY HALL-: The construction of laboratory for water quality testing cum Training Center is almost completed and it will start soon. It will help community to identify the impurities present in the water which they are consuming and we can also tell them about the health hazards of impure water.and Capacity building of the communities through training programme will be conducted in the facility provided through the project.

We have also done a need assessment for making our scheme more successful and for providing benefit to as much people as possible. After need assessment we have adopted following new activities by other funding sources & by our own effort .

The activities adopted are mentioned below-:

1. Masons Training-: As we follow a certain design of latrine construction, by adopting which it can be possible to make them durable and mentaining its sustainability for long time. Beneficiaries, themselves have not been able to understand that design thus we have provided training to 12 village masons, from 4 villages (3 masons from each village) in a three day mason training programme.

2. SOAK PIT- : Along with construction of latrine cum bathroom , for achieving the complete goal of sanitation, organization has planned to provide Soak Pit/Washing Platforms in all over the seven villages so we have constructed 50 soak pits in two villages.

3. Participation of Beneficiaries at each Stage-: We have already taken participation of beneficiaries in the planning & implementation phase but then we realized that it is also essential to involve them in monitoring & feedback phase too so that the sense of responsibility & right to their own asset can be engender within them. For this we have organized several meetings in the villages and selected stake holders from each village for monitoring of work & providing feedback so that we can update our view towards their need. In this process we have also focused on female participation because Men may resist women to take new roles initially, but once the benefits have been demonstrated, their attitudes changes, as we have seen.

Achievement-: The project activities on ‘water and sanitation' have created a positive effect on the beneficiaries regarding their health, community and personal cleanliness and it has also created a sense of social responsibility among the villagers. Now they think about the sustainability of water supply system, village sanitation and personal hygiene. Now the beneficiaries of intervention villages, themselves monitor the works done and take decision to maintain them and plan with collective decision of the villagers about the maintenance and sustainability of the project works further without depending on anybody. The organization now anticipates a sustainable process of community development by the 100% participation of communities of the intervention villages themselves.