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