So the WatSan team has been in full marketing mode for the past several weeks. We’ve been conducting trainings in our villages in which we show our videos on sanitation and hygiene while performing role plays that discuss issues that families face in deciding whether or not to purchase a latrine. We learned a lot about these issues through our focus groups and have tailored our marketing approach accordingly. Judging from the reactions that we’ve gotten from our audience, I think that our staff did a pretty good job with the focus groups. Here’re some of the comments that we’ve gotten from people in our audience.

“Did you send someone to look at our community before making these role plays?” – Apparently, the issues that we discuss in our role plays were so relevant to them, they thought we had sent “spies” in order to see what they were doing. I guess in a way we did send spies…

“We didn’t know that we were on the wrong path (referring to open defecation). Now that we know the importance of latrines, we know what we should do.” – So at one of our meetings, I had one of our Kenyan friends sit in the audience and listen in on what people were saying, and that was what he over-heard (I guess we really do send in spies…). This seems to corroborate with the story of “the chief’s latrine” that we keep hearing. Basically, many farmers dig holes on their compound as “latrines” so that the chiefs in their area won’t fine them for not having a latrine. However, since farmers don’t understand the importance of latrines, they only complied superficially.

“Don’t leave, train us some more!” – This comment really brightened up my team. At one of the communities, the clouds were rolling in and our team decided to dismiss the training so that people could escape the rain. But, they were enjoying the training so much that they refused to let us leave.

Although we are constantly improving our trainings by recording feedback from the audiences, it seems that these trainings are sparking the community to re-think and start discussions about their own sanitation. We hope that these discussions will translate into purchases of our latrine in January when our farmers start to get more income from their harvest. We’ve had some customers so far, as shown in the picture below, but we’re hoping for a lot more in the future.

That’s what we call teamwork here at WatSan.

Also, as a quick update, we’ve sold 110 handwashing stations in the past month, and our field officers continue to crank them out.  We’ve even started to get some customers in Tanzania. Here’s a picture of a handwashing station in action at one of our field officer’s house.

Posted from Suba Kuria, Nyanza, Kenya.

So I’ve arrived in Kenya for another rotation with Nuru’s Water and Sanitation Program, and it’s amazing to see how much the staff has developed since I last left. As Nicole stated in one of her last blogs, our team has complete trust in each other. Even when constructing demonstration latrines in the community, passers-by note how our team loves each other. Yep, “loves”…that’s a direct translation. This, of course, has many great benefits, one of the most notable being the shift in perception of a woman’s role, as Nicole has noted. Thus, I’m very excited to be a part of this team as we approach the next phase of our program, which is to market and sell latrines and handwashing stations.

So far, we’ve been doing a lot of prep work which can be divided into two activities. First, we’ve done some focus groups with the community in order to understand what motivations and barriers they have in purchasing a latrine. Secondly, we’ve started equipping our field officers to be successful in marketing products (I know, a little vague, but I’ll expand on it later).

In order to have a successful marketing program, we knew that we would have to listen deeply to the community. We thought that one of the best ways, given the skillset that our field managers already have practice in, was to conduct focus groups. Furthermore, we got our grubby little hands on some pretty good material from the USAID HIP program which details their own experiences in focus groups and sanitation marketing. Although we’ve just finished the focus groups and are still compiling all the responses we’ve gotten, so far we’re seeing that our responses from the community generally align with focus groups performed by the WSP in Kenya. This is exciting for several reasons. For one, we feel we have a good pulse on what the community is thinking. Secondly, it also speaks to the field managers’ abilities as facilitators to quickly build trust with focus group members and get honest answers. Obviously, talking about feces and how one defecates is not polite conversation. Imagine the skill it takes to have a person speak to a stranger about private and often embarrassing practices.

Our second activity is to equip our field officers to sell latrines successfully. However, we believe that the foundation for our field officers to be successful in marketing is to be service-minded leaders in their communities. Although we just started these training sessions with our field officers, it’s clear that they strive to serve their communities. Here are just some snippets of our conversations during these trainings:

• One field officer claimed that we should “be the example” to our communities and construct the slab latrines in our own homes. The field officers then put the training on pause in order to form groups to help each other finance and construct their own latrines. We have already built four of these latrines.
• We were discussing how the demand for handwashing stations has outpaced supply. The field officers in charge of constructing them promptly ended that discussion by stating that they will work more hours in order to satisfy demand.

Of course, we recognize that we have a lot to learn still. As much as I love working with our team, we are by no means perfect and we want to make sure we’re always ready to learn from our mistakes. Nonetheless, there are some encouraging signs as we’ve recently snagged two latrine customers. Photo of one of the satisfied customers is included below.

Posted from Nyanza, Kenya.

When you meet Rosa for the first time, she comes off as pretty shy and you are struck with how tiny she is and how young she looks. But, after working with Rosa for two years now, I have learned that Rosa is a quick-witted, creative thinker who loves to learn and has a knack for making people laugh. Rosa just left Nuru for nursing school, and in her time with us she definitely made her mark. We’re celebrating the opportunity she’s been given. I want to share Rosa’s amazing story.

The district officer in her area wondered what she was up to when she said she was leaving the village a few days a week. Rosa explained that she was working for Nuru International to help people in her community lift themselves out of extreme poverty. He was very impressed and shared Rosa’s story with the MP (Member of Parliament) who selected her for a full scholarship to the college of her choice. This scholarship is how Rosa is being supported by the government to attend nursing school “through Nuru.” Her last day of work was bittersweet. Our water and sanitation program staff members sent her off with a celebration, heartfelt speeches and gifts, and as she shook my hand in Kurian tradition one last time, she handed me a letter with this incredible story…

My Life History

By Rosa Murimi

I am 21 years old by now and being the last born out of twelve children in my family. I attended Kubwaha Primary School for my [primary level] education and it was so difficult because there was no [money to pay the] school fees.

I did my Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE)in 2004 in the school that I mentioned above. I scored a total marks of 315 out of 500 and I was position three out of thirty-seven students. I was called to join in a district school, Moi Nyabohanse Girls High School, but still it was impossible due to lack of school fees.

Thereafter, the church decided to contribute money for me and I joined that school after I got those money.  As I reached in form three [third year of secondary school], the money that the church contributed for me was over and I went back home. Within a few days later, I got a good Samaritan school decided to pay for me for the last remaining classes and through the good Samaritan I did my Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) in 2008 and managed to attain a mean grade of “C” besides all the challenges that I encountered through my studies.

After my secondary level, I stayed home and I tried to help my parents where necessary (i.e. in planting and harvesting of tobacco). Within a short period of time an organization known as Nuru International came and my side I was told to join it by Mzee Mwita who was a village elder.

It was difficult to join Nuru because I was so shy and I was fearing because I did not know how to talk the fluent English. But through God’s miracles I joined it although my age-mates were laughing at me that how can I volunteer to work minus money instead of helping my parents with some work. [This was when Rosa first came onboard and was still on unpaid probation.] But it is good to do some changes minus money than earning a lot of money minus doing anything.

After continuing working in Nuru, I saw many changes in my family because we started boiling water and harvesting a lot of maize – something we didn’t know before. Through Nuru also I started saving some money thinking that after making some changes in my community I could go to school for medical [studies], my favorite work.

Through Nuru, the government is going to sponsor me to school and I hereby say that many God bless kijana Jake who decided to start this project plus all the wazungus [white people] who really helped us so much and also Mrs. Nicole Scott who normally used to encourage me not to fear and through this I have really improved so much.

Otherwise whatever you do and wherever you go may good lucky also accompany you – all the wazungus [white people].

Losing Rosa definitely left a gap in the water and sanitation program. When she told me that she was leaving, she cried because she wanted to “make some changes in her community before leaving for school.” She felt like she failed to do so. But, although I was sad to see her go, I was so excited for her and knew it was the right thing to leave Nuru for school.

I reminded her of all the many ways she has made changes in her community. She trained up a local cadre of field officers who are now able to construct low cost, safe latrines. She has trained her community about the causes of diarrheal diseases and how to prevent them. During the cholera outbreak last year she had a line out of the door at her house: her neighbors knew exactly where to come for technical assistance, and Rosa stayed up late into the night teaching them how to properly boil water to disinfect it. Rosa has certainly helped to end extreme poverty in her community.

Rosa is a who is a servant leader who has grown into a fantastic trainer, mentor to her staff and manager. As I wrap up my last few weeks here in Kenya, I’ve been reflecting on the amazing privilege it has been to work alongside Rosa and to pour into all our Kenyan staff members. Their courage, commitment to growth, willingness to learn and their deep warmth and kindness toward me inspires me every day. I can honestly say that they have changed my life and made me a better person. I will never forget their faces, their stories, their friendship and their incredible hard work ending extreme poverty in their community.

Rosa with her mother at their home

If you’ve been following this blog, you already know that Nuru’s water and sanitation program staff members are developing a safe, low-cost latrine product here in Kuria, Kenya. Here’s a quick snapshot of where we are now:

• We’ve selected our design. We’ve built a house-like “superstructure” with timbers and corrugated metal on a 1-by-1.5 meter “slab” (concrete platform) atop a rectangular pit constructed of bricks and mortar (the “lining”); the pit wall is 0.5 meters thick in order to support the slab weight.

• We’ve trained our field officers. 19 women and men recruited from various communities comprise four construction crews equipped with skills and a set of tools to build latrines for their neighbors.

• We’re currently testing our latrine product. Our team built latrines at Nuru’s maize buying stations, strategically located to reach remote, rural farmers. These latrines now serve as demonstration units to show the community that we can build low-cost latrines that are safe, long-lasting and nice-looking.

The neighbors have definitely taken notice of our latrine construction efforts, and they’re especially curious about our women team members.

The Neighbors’ Reaction

Whenever our field officer teams are out building latrines, a crowd of neighbors gather to watch. The neighbors are skeptical at first and wonder why we crush stones (we’re getting them just the right size to make a strong “dry concrete mix” as our partner CAWST trained us) and tediously make sure each pit measures exactly 1-by-1.5 meters. But, after they see the superstructure go up, how sturdy the slab is over the pit and how nice the whole thing looks, they turn from skeptics to admirers.

“How did you learn how to do this?” they ask our field officers. And the most common source of amazement:

“How did these mamas [women] learn how to do construction?”

Developing local expertise for building safe, low-cost latrines has had several side benefits. One is team bonding. It’s amazing how compacting concrete can bring people together and lead them to spontaneously burst into song and dance.

Another side benefit is empowering women.

Gender Context in Kuria

The Kuria tribe maintains strict traditions, keeping gender roles rigidly defined; women are responsible for cooking, cleaning, collecting water and firewood, caring for children (I could go on) and men are responsible for security of the family, construction of the home, and more. Most women have to ask their husbands for permission for most things and are told from a very young age to let the men do the talking. Our field manager, Eliza, enlightened me on the topic:

“According to Kurian culture, women should not speak in front of a group, especially not in front of a group of men. If she does, her husband will wonder [be concerned]…and people will call her a prostitute, thinking she has intentions with those men…”

Another example from Eliza:

“According to Kurian culture, it is not good for a woman to give feedback to a man. If I gave feedback to a husband and the parents heard…they would say, ‘This is not a wife; can you chase her away [sic].’”

How did it work for our teams of men and women field officers to do construction together? One woman named Catherine seized the opportunity.

The General Manager

Catherine Robi, a mother of three in her late twenties, is a tough lady with a great sense of humor. When construction starts, she’s the first one to take off her shoes (literally), grab a shovel and jump in. Catherine was unanimously voted as team leader and has been dubbed the “general manager” by her colleagues because she knows how to do every stage of construction and takes her work so seriously.

Catherine’s team was recently selected to lead a training for all the field officers on how to make a smooth slab (after we noticed her team’s slabs were the smoothest, look the nicest and are the easiest to clean – a commonly-voiced customer priority).

How did the men on our team react to women like Catherine rising to the construction challenge? They began to see the women in a new light.

The Men’s Response

As one man told me:

“Our women [at home] don’t do construction, so we didn’t think women could do this work. We are wondering at [impressed by] how the women on our team have come up [improved and learned how to do construction].”

Then, one day the women had a realization.

The Women’s Realization

Rosa, our field manager, shared this story during one of our construction debriefs:

“The women on our team, we realized that during construction sometimes we just watch the men…and Anne said of Nicole, ‘I see her using the measuring tape to take measurements and she’s not here right now. (I was on a few week break in the U.S.; good things seem to happen when I leave.) So, I think that the women, we can try to measure today.’”

Rioba, one of our oldest male team members, supported Anne’s idea:

“Today is your turn to measure.”

So on that day, the whole team decided the women should do every step.

Rosa admitted: “Digging the pit, it was very difficult.”

The men are not only accepting and affirming the women as they step up, but they’re also reaching out to teach the women what they know.

Men Empowering the Women

Pauline is a very timid soft-spoken mother of eight with very little education.  When she recently returned from maternity leave and showed up to our construction site with her newborn baby, Win (as in Winfreida), on her back, her team warmly welcomed her back and informed her that they’d be working on the latrine lining that day. Pauline pictured the lining of her dress and was very confused about why they were putting a polyester dress lining on a latrine. The team showed her how the lining was actually made of bricks and mortar. When I showed up to visit the team the following week, a field officer named Thomas was teaching Pauline how to split timbers in half with a wood saw to make the latrine door.

So, how is Nuru achieving such success at empowering women?

How Latrine Construction Led to Women’s Empowerment

A combination of factors has led to a women’s empowerment phenomenon on our team. One key factor is trust: our team members have developed close bonds during training and construction. They really care about one another and have become like family; when a baby is born or when a family member dies, all 22 of them take up a collection and travel to their team member’s home to have a meal and deliver the cash gift. They cheer one another on during construction as they learn a new skill, and they’re proud of how far they’ve come together as a team.

Another factor is leadership: we have two female field managers who lead by example and do their part during construction; they aren’t afraid to try what is traditionally considered to be men’s work.

As Eliza says: “You know, at Nuru women and men are the same.”

And back to the comment Eliza made about giving men feedback (above):

“If I practice giving feedback to Elias [our program leader], I can then do it with the men from the agriculture program and not fear.”

And, that’s definitely another factor: Elias, our program leader, works hard to create a positive and productive work environment for both women and men. He is delegating more and more “male” responsibilities to Eliza and Rosa (i.e. purchasing cement, timbers and tools).  And together, they make sure each member of our team is involved in whatever we’re doing. They shared their philosophy of teamwork and servant leadership with me:

“When it comes to construction, everyone should have something to do. And when we visit teams, we shouldn’t just sit and let the field officers do all the work. We should also be working together with them and giving them feedback in a good way on what they’re doing well and where they need improvement. We need to be servant leaders that way.”

We’ve discovered that an empowering work environment is built upon a foundation of trust, teamwork and servant leadership.  Who would have thought that a construction site would be a great place for women’s empowerment?

Posted from Nyanza, Kenya.

Boke (pronounced Bow-kay) just completed his summer internship with Nuru-Kenya.  A lot of Boke’s classmates did their internships in Nairobi near their university, but Boke chose to forgo city life for a few months and make the 8-hour journey to Kuria to do his internship with Nuru-Kenya, which is led by his father Philip Masero Mohochi. Boke quickly adjusted to the rural lifestyle of Kurialand and was an instant hit with the Nuru staff. He rotated through all of Nuru’s five program areas during his time in Kuria and learned a lot, but he told me he was shocked most by what he learned from our water and sanitation program team…

My name is Boke Beatus. I was born in Nairobi and raised in city life but my parents moved out to the country side in Isibania, Kuria.  Two years ago I would not accept to work in the countryside or live in the countryside either.  Later on my perception in life changed and I started liking the country life. Although the countryside lacks some facilities and infrastructure when compared to a city like Nairobi, the people are so friendly and you get to know your relatives and culture too.  The environment here is not polluted as such and the landscape is marvelous.  Life in Isibania is relatively cheap compared to life in Nairobi.  The countryside also lacks the hustle of dealing with traffic jams every day.  All these benefits of Isibania, when compared to Nairobi, sums it up that I was comfortable living in Isibania and working in Nuru International as an intern.

I worked for Nuru International in various departments such as community economic development, healthcare, water and sanitation, agriculture and education for two and a half months.  I am going to concentrate on my experience in the water and sanitation department.

Before I worked in the water and sanitation department, I was really curious what goes on in this department.  I got to understand that this department teaches the Kuria community on importance of washing hands with soap especially before eating and after using a sanitation facility [toilet].  I come from Nairobi and I thought everyone would know the importance of washing hands but I was surprised to know that in the remote areas in Kuria people do not wash hands that often.

Speaking of sanitation, not so many people have latrines in the remote areas in Kuria.  So I wondered how they disposed of feces if they do not have latrines.  I was shocked to be told by the two field managers of water and sanitation that some people defecate on the river.  I was so quick to judge by saying that it is silly to defecate on the river.  Nelson Mandela once said do not judge before you understand, so I sought to understand the reason as to why one would defecate on the river.  One of the field managers called Elizabeth told me that she has even busted one of the villagers defecating on the river; she asked that villager why he would such a thing.  The villager informed Elizabeth that there was nothing wrong doing so because by the time the feces moves downstream it will have dissolved and the water would be clean again.  And I understood that the problem in the remote villages is lack of knowledge, that is to say few people are educated.  No wonder that villager would have such a unique attitude on sanitation.

In addition, I even got to learn that some people use rocks as tissue paper after defecating. I was shocked because I could not imagine how a rock would be effective.  I was shocked though to be informed that some use their own hand in wiping themselves after defecating and some even do not wash their hands after such an act.  This information made to really fear shaking hands with people but I came to the conclusion that washing my hands regularly is the only assurance that my hands would be always clean.

I also attended one of the meetings of all field officers of water and sanitation department. The meeting was run by using technique facilitation.  The program manager of water and sanitation who is called Nicole is the one who told me about facilitation technique.  It is a technique that the program manager uses in her department which is all about letting the people decide for themselves what they want to do but with a supervisor who only gives the direction.  In this way the subordinates would be comfortable working because they are working and implementing their own agreed ideas instead of the ideas their leader imposed on them.  That is why I realized the water and sanitation department works in team work as one.  I would say facilitation is a very effective technique.

Boke didn’t only learn from the water and sanitation program team: he also taught our field managers and field officers a few key principles about marketing. And, Boke did a splendid job using the facilitation technique he witnessed at work in our program. During his marketing discussion with our staff he asked great questions which sparked rich discussions about how we might continue to improve our handwashing station sales (and set up a successful latrine building service). Boke graduated from United States International University of Africa in Nairobi, Kenya with an International Relations degree on August 20^th. Congratulations, Boke! We miss you already!