SWIFT conducted a number of hygiene-promotion activities in Kenya with the aim of changing behaviour; in particular, to encourage hand-washing with soap or a soap substitute.
Mass media campaigns
BBC Media Action partnered with local radio stations and supported them to produce public health broadcasts that are engaging and locally relevant.
Having conducted formative research across the Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASAL) counties and Nairobi’s informal settlements, BBC Media Action analysed the WASH information needs, levels of knowledge and existing attitudes and barriers to the adoption of improved hygiene behaviours among the target audiences.
BBC Media Action ‘mentors’ worked with six partner radio stations to build their capacity to incorporate WASH content in their programming; for example, by holding a production workshop at which they received training in producing WASH Public Service Announcements (PSAs). The radio stations include public-health messaging in the form of interviews, discussions, vox pops and news stories. You can hear some of the programmes that were produced here.
School health clubs and the ‘child-to-child’ approach
In rural areas of Turkana, Marsabit and Wajir counties, Oxfam, Concern and Practical Action supported hygiene promotion activities aimed at children through School Health Clubs.
These clubs use the Children’s Hygiene and Sanitation Training (CHAST) methodology endorsed by Kenya’s Ministry of Health. The approach involves interactive learning sessions with children that include puppet shows, role plays, poetry, games, songs and other creative ways of communicating hygiene messages.
SWIFT also trained teachers in Wajir in the ‘child-to-child’ approach, a similar method which facilitates children’s understanding of healthy behaviour and allows them to identify health priorities in a fun, challenging and interesting way.
‘Edutainment’ and the World Toilet Cup
When SWIFT partner Sanergy installs a Fresh Life Toilet in a school in Nairobi’s informal settlement of Mukuru, it provides a day of ‘edutainment’, a combination of education and entertainment, in collaboration with social impact organisation WASH United.
Activities include a giant board game, in which children roll a dice and pretend to wash their hands at the right moments to find the ‘Hand-washing Champion’, and a football-themed ‘World Toilet Cup’, which requires them to kick a brown ball into a ‘latrine’ (motto: ‘every poo needs a loo’).
Sanergy has also provided WASH training for teachers in 120 schools with Fresh Life Toilets.
Community Health Volunteers and Community-Led Total Sanitation
In Wajir and Turkana, Oxfam and Practical Action have trained Community Health Volunteers to conduct home visits to promote hygiene behaviours such as hand-washing (see the relevant sections on the Kenya page).
In the northern ASAL region, Oxfam, Concern and Practical Action have implemented the Community-Led Total Sanitation approach, which includes training community facilitators in hygiene promotion activities, and providing information, education and communication materials to trigger debate around health and hygiene messages (see ‘Increasing access to safe sanitation in Kenya‘).