Water / Schools / Girls / Sanitation / Ghana - must read

It's times like this when I wish this blog had a billion readers instead of just several hundred million. Below is an important piece from Voice of America on sanitation / hygiene / water / girls in school (or NOT in school) in Ghana. You put a bunch of taboos in a room together (human sexuality, girls, bodily fluids, poverty) and you get few people interested in tackling whatever the issue is. That's why more folks need to see this reporting and take action. Sanitary pads and safe water: enablers of girls' education as important as a teacher, textbook or schoolhouse.

Ghana - Keeping Girls in School May be a Matter of Better Sanitary Protection

When boys and girls reach puberty, their bodies go through many physical changes. But for girls in Africa, the onset of menstruation can bring with it discrimination, unwanted sexual advances and the end of their education. Now a pilot study in Ghana says it doesn’t have to be that way.

The study says when free sanitary protection is provided to secondary school girls there is a sharp drop in absenteeism and increased participation in household chores and socializing.

Oxford University Professor Linda Scott led the study, which involved more than 180 girls in four remote villages in Ghana. She says menstruation is often a taboo subject.

“I think it’s a combination of its links to sexuality and its links to bodily outputs. We don’t usually like to talk about bodily outputs or sexuality. And of course the fact that it affects females also has a tendency to make it more stigmatized, particularly in a developing nation context,” she says.

Cost and lack of availability are two reasons rural girls in poor countries go without sanitary protection.

Scott says, “It’s so much something that people take for granted. And even in the poor nations, people who would be middle class, and therefore government workers and NGO workers, they also would tend to take it for granted.” Also because it’s a taboo subject, it’s not something people talk about. So it tends to be invisible.

Perceptions change

What’s more, Professor Scott says girls are perceived differently once menstruation begins.

“Part of the problem is that the onset of menstruation in remote areas of Ghana is taken as signifying the coming of actual adulthood in a way that we don’t recognize it in the West. We don’t think of a 12 or 13-year-old girl as being marriageable or sexually available. But actually in this context it’s a signal that she’s both,” she says.

A girl without sanitary protection faces serious consequences.

“Her biggest problem is that if people know about this it’s not just an embarrassment and a laughing matter. It’s something that may actually put her in danger. And at this time also families often feel it’s time to withdraw their economic support for the girl to continue in school. So she suddenly starts having quite a bit less support for her continuing education,” she says.

Many of the girls, she says, simply get discouraged and drop out of school. But they face a physical risk as well.

“Sexual harassment and sexual predators are a big problem even for very young girls. Once they’re known to be sexually ready, from that perspective, they may be the victims of unwanted sexual advances. And unfortunately, very, very often it might come even from their teachers,” she says.

In the long-term

Scott says the long-term consequences are “huge.” While education for both boys and girls is critical for a nation’s development, ensuring girls remain in school can bring many benefits.

“There is quite a lot of data at this point to show that it has positive impact on economic development and productivity. But in particular, very quick impact on fertility rates, infant mortality, disease transmission, nutritional level and of course just generally improve the individual girl’s chances of having a happy and prosperous life,” she says.

The Oxford professor says government and NGO programs providing free sanitary protection could be a cost-effective way of ensuring girls’ education. But she says it would have to be done in such a way that is culturally sensitive. Also, she says communities need to be made aware of the importance of secondary education for girls.

Similar but longer studies are being considered for other African counties, as well as Muslim countries in Asia.

WASH in Schools - UNICEF at World Water Week

It's a busy time for global water and sanitation challenges at the World Water Week in Stockholm.

Of note: UNICEF is using its time there to promote part of its approach to the challenge, which they call WASH in Schools - Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Education in Schools.

If you are at all unsure about the impact that safe drinking water and single gender sanitation can have on schools, please watch a brief video that UNICEF has produced here.

And more on UNICEF's website:

http://www.unicef.org/wash/index_50832.html

And more from Water Advocates here.

I have been saying for a long time that the only thing that can compete with safe drinking water and sanitation on the hierarchy of development needs is girls' education. UNICEF's work with WASH in Schools pulls it all together nicely.

Water Advocates is hiring - Water, Schools and Health

Director of Global Water, Health and Schools

Water Advocates (www.wateradvocates.org) is a small but influential nonprofit advocacy group in Washington DC (DuPont Circle area) dedicated to helping solve the global safe drinking water and sanitation challenge. Water Advocates neither implements programs overseas nor seeks funding for itself, but works to raise awareness of and funding for the global water and sanitation sector as a whole.

The Director of Global Water, Health and Schools is responsible for planning and implementing Water Advocates’ outreach and advocacy program focused on a) water, sanitation, and global public health and b) the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) in Schools Initiative. He/she will play a leading role in the growth of Water Advocates’ ambitious outreach program and will serve as one of the main advocates and representatives of Water Advocates and its allies.

Responsibilities

The Director’s main role will be to support the overall mission of Water Advocates to significantly increase awareness of and financial support for the global safe drinking water and sanitation sector from private and public US-based supporters. He/she will maintain and grow the existing WASH in Schools Initiative, and identify and pursue new funding opportunities, special initiatives, communications efforts, and other projects concerning the linkages between water, sanitation and global public health.

Qualifications

Knowledge of and experience with the global safe drinking water and sanitation sector and linkages to other international human development challenges; experienced in working with global health and education
· Networking expertise, preferably with strong existing relationships in the community of potential funders; ability to broker partnerships, including across development sectors
· Excellent research skills, and the ability to deliver compelling arguments to new and existing funders (strong written and oral communication)
MPH or related degree preferred
· Able to travel occasionally (domestic)
· Able to work independently and creatively

Desired Skills
Commitment to values, mission and vision of Water Advocates; engagement in global health and/or development issues, preferably with a focus on safe drinking water and sanitation, health and education challenges
Strong background in outreach/advocacy/program management; record of proactive efforts to build new relationships with potential supporters/funders and expanding/strengthening existing relationships
Experience with basic fund-raising and communications techniques
Ability to develop, plan and implement specific short- and long-term outreach goals
Demonstrated public speaking skills, and experience in planning and facilitating meetings
Ability and desire to work in a small organization with a consensus-oriented environment with different work styles
Ability to use modern/leading edge communications tools and software applications, and excellent written communication skills
High-energy, love of challenge, and ability to be effective in a constantly changing environment

Writing samples will be required.

This position is located in Washington, DC. This is a full-time exempt position, lasting from date of hire through December 31, 2010. Salary range is commensurate with experience. Some domestic travel may be required. Water Advocates is an Equal Opportunity Employer/Affirmative Action Employer that is committed to diversity in the workplace.

Please send résumé and cover letter to joldfield@wateradvocates.org.

Flush it?!? I would LOVE to.

Here is TIME Magazine's review of Rose George's book The Big Necessity: The Unmentionable World of Human Waste and Why It Matters:

Flush it.

OK, fine. Well, hold on. I am writing from India, where 700m of us don't have the luxury of a flushing john with which to flush our bacteria-laden poo much less books about sanitation. I am writing from Ethiopia, where only 8% (sic) of my rural compatriots have even the most basic sanitation facility. I am writing from Nicaragua, where only 34% (sic) of rural inhabitants have a place to go to the bathroom besides the jungle. And might I encourage Andrea Sachs to compete with passersby for a space on the sidewalk in front of her office next time nature calls? See for example, the questions posed by this campaign from the German Toilet Organization.

For that matter, how about Freddy and Sara, Ms. Sachs' two shelter cats, being deprived of their litter box? Would that change her mind as to the primacy of the sanitation issue?

I don't have the luxury of flushing away a well-written, well-documented, eye-opening book about a global health crisis that kills five times (sic) as many under-fives as does HIV. I'd like to be able to pull the handle on a porcelain toilet to wash out of sight a book which brings to light the fact that diarrheal disease kills twice as many under-fives as does malaria, and sickens billions (sic) more.

Ms. Sachs writes "A series of articles was plenty on this topic," and she also suggests reading it is an "ordeal by ordure." I am mildly impressed by her alliteration, but was a series of articles enough to focus the world's attention on HIV/AIDS? How comfortable were we discussing HIV twenty years ago? Did our discomfort make HIV a less worthy cause? Was an oped in the Washington Post enough to get the world's attention on malaria, or safe drinking water?

Only when sanitation (shit, diarrhea, feces, cholera, dysentery, 2m dead under-fives each year) becomes as compelling to talk (and blog) about as HIV/AIDS will the proper amount of effort be dedicated to inadequate sanitation. This remains arguably the world's gravest public health challenge, whose gravity siphons off innumerable resources from other less preventable health challenges and development priorities. And fatal diarrhea is preventable.

So, now that we are past the nonsense of a "series of articles" being enough, how about we start with a cover story on TIME to highlight the global sanitation challenge, and the work, for example of the Global Sanitation Fund? Or maybe more feature articles on Rock, Paper, Scissors are a better use of newsprint?

Love,

John

The Big Necessity - Book Signing with Rose George, the Scribe of Sanitation

Did you know that even though disease spread by human excrement kills more children each year than HIV, TB and malaria combined, nobody talks about it because it’s not sexy?

While we’re ignoring this silent killer, 2.6 billion people (that’s four in ten!) today do not have a toilet and instead are forced to do their business on roadsides, in bags or bushes, or anywhere they can. Open defecation is the leading cause of some of the deadliest, but most ignored, communicable diseases affecting our world’s population today.

Diarrhea – usually caused when flies, feet or fingers introduce feces into the food (dig the alliteration) or water supply - needlessly kills nearly 2 million children a year and is the second leading cause of child death worldwide. We hope you will join us and help tell the story about the billions of people whose lives can be saved by the simple introduction of a toilet – a privilege we take for granted each and every time we flush. Journalist Rose George will join us in Washington, DC on October 22nd to launch her new book:

The Big Necessity:

The Unmentionable World of Human Waste and Why it Matters

It's an entertaining, educational and insightful ride through the world’s sanitation systems, or lack thereof. From the slums of Dar Es Salaam and the villages of Bangladesh back to the squeaky-clean sewage plants that serve Washington DC, George exposes the taboos and disparities that surround human waste – and shows us in no uncertain terms why confronting them is essential to our global health, dignity, and prosperity.

Double click on image below for more details. The event is free, but please RSVP.

The Girl Effect - Best Video Ever

Best video EVER. Watch this. Two minutes of your life. Girl Effect... Very powerful. And directly related to safe drinking water and sanitation. No Girl Effect if she's hauling water on her head for her childhood. No Girl Effect if she has to drop out of school because her school doesn't have single gender sanitation facilities. Seriously - sit down and watch it.

And register to vote while you're at it.