Tambwe Sumaili takes part in a hand-washing demonstration at a
Community Health Club in Matongo, South Kivu
English
Marie Salima shows a drawing of a tippy-tap in use at a Community Health Club meeting in Matongo, South Kivu. Club members discuss the benefits of
using the tippy-tap for hand-washing
The BBC has broadcast a report about a Community Health Club which was set up with the support of Tearfund and Africa AHEAD through the SWIFT programme in a village in South Kivu.
‘From Our Own Correspondent‘, which aired on 9 April 2016 on the BBC World Service and the UK station Radio 4, included a report by journalist Mary-Ann Ochota from the village of Mwandiga III, where SWIFT has been piloting the Community Health Club approach. A transcript of the audio report was published on the Magazine pages of the BBC’s website.
Ochota met Bawili Amisi, a woman who was forcibly repatriated from Tanzania to Mwandiga III in 2008, a new village with no school, no clean water, and no sanitation. Bawili’s daughter was bitten by a snake while defecating in the bushes, and the toxins left her with a damaged heart and nervous system at the age of 14. One year later, she was gang-raped, again after defecating in the bushes, and had a child as a result.
Now, however, Bawili’s family and many others in the village have pit latrines of their own, built by the community following the establishment of a Community Health Club. The club, of which Bawili is president, meets every Sunday to discuss health and hygiene issues and has sparked a number of changes in the village, including increased hand-washing.
You can watch a video of the club singing a rousing song about hand-washing and hygiene as part of the BBC report – scroll down to near the end.
Community Health Clubs have been established in some 26 villages in South Kivu through the SWIFT programme, with the participation of 4,156 households. Membership of the clubs, which provide practical guidance to members on how to improve home hygiene and prevent most common diseases, is voluntary, free and open to all.
Members take part in weekly dialogue sessions on a number of topics, such as the safe storage of drinking water, or making soap. Each week they are given practical assignments, such as digging a refuse pit, or making a rack to dry dishes off the ground. These are monitored, and members receive stamps and certificates for attending sessions and completing tasks.
You can listen to the BBC report in full here; the item is 6:43 into the programme. Alternatively, you can read the story on the BBC’s Magazine pages here. To find out more about the Community Health Clubs set up in DRC through the SWIFT programme, click here.
