If only there were two types of flies…

December 22, 2010 7:06 pm by Amelia Lyons

Amelia with children during CLTS training

A word of caution to readers: in this entry, I talk in some detail about “open defecation” so parts of this blog may not be for the squeamish!

This week Action Against Hunger/ACF has been hosting a week-long workshop on Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) for staff and local government. CLTS is a method developed to address poor sanitation, specifically targeted at ending open defecation. The method was developed in 1999 by Dr. Kamal Kar in Bangladesh, as a hands-off intervention to trigger communities’ disgust and action through understanding the harm open defecation causes in their water sources, food, and villages. (Lack of adequate sanitation is a leading killer worldwide). It has since been implemented in countries throughout the world, including Uganda and other east African countries.

We hired an external consultant to come and facilitate the training, and 26 of us met in Lira, northern Uganda. The first two days introduced us all to CLTS – what it is, where and when it was developed and the fundamentals of the approach. Ultimately, CLTS is about facilitating a process and allowing a community to develop its own disgust around open defecation. On the third day of the workshop we travelled to two villages in Otuke District: Ogor and Atat.

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The price of clean water

December 17, 2010 6:51 pm by Amelia Lyons

About a month ago, our head of region in northern Uganda finished his contract and left the country. When he left, I was asked to be the acting head of base until the position was filled. While the job involves much more administration than I would like, I am fast learning the new role, and more importantly, I’m getting a much more comprehensive view of all of the ACF programs and interventions than I did when I was solely doing water, sanitation, and hygiene work.

This week I was asked to join the food security team in the purchase of land for a planned satellite collection warehouse for local farmers’ associations.The activities include providing local farmer groups with market information, training on post-harvest handling, and access to satellite storage facilities to help bring crops to market. We had travelled to Akago village in Nwoya District to meet with the community for the purchase of land to construct one of these satellite collection points. I should have known better, but I came expecting a quick, one-hour turnover. After measuring the plot, arguing about the size/corners/distance from the road, then finally reading, translating and signing the contract, the whole day was gone.

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Learning the ‘five F’s’

December 2, 2010 1:11 pm by Amelia Lyons

Northern Uganda has a long history of violence, with civil war paralyzing the region for the better part of thirty years. A fragile stability has only recently taken hold, with families beginning to move out of the displacement camps and back home. Many people return to their villages – which have experienced years or even decades of neglect – only to find no available safe water, compound the various challenges already faced by these subsistence farmers.

Access to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) is critical to ensuring the health of families, and particularly young children in the region. As the WASH program manager in Gulu, Uganda, I manage a team of 20 staff members. We drill new boreholes, rehabilitate old boreholes, protect springs from surface contamination and promote hygiene at the community level, including construction of latrines and other sanitation facilities.

Continue reading: “Learning the ‘five F’s’”