A Plea for VIP Latrines
August 11, 2023
Africa | Arigbokoto Village | Benin | Education | Income | Sustainable Development | Water | Wellness
The past couple of weeks, Transformational Community Development (TCD) focused on the children in primary school. The TCD worker, Pascal, taught the kids about maintaining a clean environment and various aspects of body hygiene, including hand washing, haircare, and dentalcare. The teachers were excited that a team came from outside the school to teach these lessons, reinforcing what they teach the children about hygiene.
The teachers expressed their concerns about the lack of toilets in the school to the TCD team. Lack of toilets within the school premises promotes open defecation in the surrounding bushes, which both teachers and school kids practice because they have no choice. The ventilated improved pit (VIP) latrines constructed as a TCD project in the village are very far away from the school and do not serve the school population during school hours. They also said the practice exposes them to reptile attacks. The Arigbakoto Village primary school management made a plea for the construction of VIP latrines within their premises.
Transformational Community Development (TCD) Update
Water
The borehole in the village developed a problem. The Water Committee has been in contact with the drilling company and they successfully got the company to fix the problem. The borehole works well now.
Wellness
Promotion of personal hygiene, cleanliness of the environment, and care of the VIP latrines continued throughout the quarter. TCD lessons on Wellness were taken to the village primary school which positively impacted teachers, the kids, and their parents.
Income Generation
The Income Generation Committee is brainstorming about diversification of income generation activities in the village. Besides palm oil agribusiness, the farmers are upscaling peanut oil production by pooling resources together in a cooperative. They purchased additional farmlands to farm peanuts communally in order to reduce their cost of production.
Thank you!
Written by: Shade
GHNI Assistant Regional Field Leader
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