Today, Monday the 17th of February, I met with Water for Cambodia (our Rotary founded and funded Cambodian partner) to review our first three weeks of work on this year’s project. It will be a great meeting as we have made overwhelming progress and are well prepared for full scale WASH implementation.
In a nutshell:
- Two weeks before our arrival a Water for Cambodia (WFC) team updated our village demographics in six villages. (see attachment #1)
- My first week in country was consumed with preparation of the plan of action, pricing and consultation with the implementing staff members. We also needed to prepare for our Bath Rotarian supporter Jen, who has organized our school-based hygiene program, and Shelby, a former Interact member, who has volunteered to head up our new female health component.
- Week number two we moved to the remote villages and settled in for two weeks of no running water, no electricity and outdoor plumbing. What did we do…besides sweat a lot?
- Met with Commune Chief and 6 village Chiefs individually
- Met with 4 grade school principals and teaching staff to discuss hygiene education
- Met with Secondary school staff to discuss female health issues
- Inspected Dug wells, Bio-Sand Filters and Latrines installed in 2018 in 5 of the 6 villages
- Conducted 3 community wide beneficiary meetings to explain the program and get firm commitments from those receiving assistance
- Week number three was fun with the children week.
- We conducted hand washing and hygiene classes at 4 grade schools
- Shelby met multiple times with the very engaged male and female teachers at the secondary school to plan a meaningful female health initiative, which will be initiated next week; a big success!
- To reward the kids and their teachers for their joyful cooperation we helped improve the water supply to their latrines, fabricated metal soccer goal posts, distributed soccer balls and quietly supplied the poorest of the poor with school supplies
- Next week WFC will start construction of the components, and by March 1st it is likely our first beneficiaries will be digging, building and working towards a healthier future. They will invest a lot of sweat equity and a personal cash investment. We act as the catalyst, they are the engine!
Worldwide, according to Rotary’s own estimates, upwards of 70% of WASH infrastructure is abandoned after a year. Our Holistic approach is yielding about a 90% success rate.