A large-scale survey carried out by BRAC’s Research Evaluation Division (RED) amongst 30,000 households found that knowledge of hygiene is very strong among more than 90% of the people, but actual hygiene practices develop far more slowly.
Published on: 20/10/2011
BRAC, the world’s largest development organisation in the southern hemisphere, has been working since 1972 on poverty alleviation and empowerment of the poor. Since its inception, BRAC has brought an exceptionally strong and consistent dedication to improving the quality of life and empowering women and poor families through a holistic approach of development. Aligned with other interventions, BRAC launched a comprehensive intervention on Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) since May 2006 (Kabir et al 2010).
In Bangladesh, traditionally women are responsible for managing all water, sanitation and hygiene related activities like cooking, washing, feeding babies, animals and cleaning everything in their households. Sustainability of this programme is unimaginable without spontaneous women participation in the programme. For this reason the programme has been organizing monthly cluster meetings to create awareness among the women from 10 households and adolescent girls from 45 households at community level.
Adolescent-girls cluster meeting (Photo: BRAC WASH Programme 2010)
The programme assistants are organizing cluster meetings to disseminate water, sanitation and hygiene messages through different behavioural change communication materials such as posters, flipcharts, and demonstration of handwashing practices.
The programme has been disseminating the following messages to the intervention areas for adopting water, sanitation and hygiene practices and breaking the contamination cycle for all individuals, households, and the entire community
Messages for handwashing:
Message for Safe water:
Message for Sanitation:
A large-scale survey carried out by BRAC’s Research Evaluation Division (RED) amongst 30,000 households found that knowledge of hygiene is very strong among more than 90% of the people, although actual hygienic practices develop far more slowly (Akther, 2008). People havethe knowledge but do not practice the hygienic behaviours disseminated through cluster meetings. RED also found that self-reported washing hands with soap before eating increased from 8% to 20%. Thus, while progress has been made, there is a considerable distance to achieve hygienic behaviour. (Akter and Ali 2011)
However, the programme has surpassed the original target for WASH I of providing access to hygienic sanitation for 17.6 million people. By the end of WASH I, it was expected that 24.5 million people in all will have gained access to hygienic sanitation through the programme.
References
Akter Tahera and Ali ARM Mehrab (2011) Knowledge and practice of hygiene in BRAC’s WASH programme areas, First assessment 2007 – 2009, BRAC Research and Evaluation Division (RED). South Asian Hygiene Practitioners workshop, 2011, Dhaka, Bangladesh. www.bracresearch.org
Dr. Kabir Babar et al (2010) Contributions of Village WASH Committee in breaking the cycle of unhygienic behaviours in rural Bangladesh. South Asian Hygiene Practitioners workshop, 2010, Dhaka, Bangladesh. http://www.irc.nl/page/51611
Akther Nasima et al (2008) WASH Programme of BRAC: Towards Attaining the MDG,Targets: Baseline Findings, BRAC Research and Evaluation Division (RED). www.bracresearch.org
Md. Mahidul Islam, IRC 2nd round young professional