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!

Our journey in Building Local Capacity to Construct Safe, Low Cost Latrines continues, and Nuru’s Water and Sanitation Program team members are having a lot of fun along the way. Who knew that compacting concrete could be so much fun?

Since our friends from the Center for Affordable Water and Sanitation Technology (CAWST) left, we have been working hard converting their Low Cost Latrine Training, which is designed for managers and English speakers, into a training suitable for our field officers, who have little formal education and speak Kiswahili and their mother tongue, Kikuria. Thankfully, CAWST left us with excellent lesson plans and a construction manual that we were able to simplify and translate.

Our team is gaining PRACTICAL SKILLS- Our three managers have used the revised lesson plans and construction manual to train 18 field officers on how to build safe, low cost latrines. Half the days were spent in the classroom learning about the sanitation ladder, latrine siting rules, how to build strong slabs, how to size a latrine pit, pit lining rules and latrine maintenance. And the afternoons were spent out in the field building latrine slabs and digging and partially lining pits.

Our team is sold on the slab construction method CAWST taught us- 1 part cement: 2 parts sand: 4 parts gravel measured by volume using buckets + just a bit of water very well compacted.  Each day they get better and better at mixing the concrete just right and adding enough water to make the concrete workable but not so much that you end up with a weak mix. This is tricky when you’re right on the equator where a few minutes of hot sun can quickly dry up your perfect mix.

Our team is ITERATING- Every week during lively debrief sessions, we list out our lessons learned and we apply them the following work day. For example, they forgot to remove the wooden squat hole mold one day and discovered that it had expanded and was nicely lodged within the concrete slab. Whoops! They had to use a hammer to knock it out, and they were all amazed that their slab withstood the impact and suffered no injuries. This was a memorable reminder to always remove the squat hole mold a couple hours after pouring the slab. Of course, this was included in their construction manuals, but learning the hard way is a bit more sticky.

Our team is INNOVATING- Although many of our field officers don’t have much of a formal education, they’re brilliant and resourceful and have discovered several great work-arounds. For example, after compacting concrete for long periods of time with wooden blocks while squatting, they rigged up a simple compacting device (shown in the video) they can use while standing up that covers a lot more area.

Our team is MOTIVATED to SERVE- Our field officers are encouraged by how much they have been able to learn over the past few weeks and accomplish together as a team. They are excited about continuing to practice their new skills and then go out into the community and help their neighbors build safe, low cost latrines their neighbors!

As our field officer Thomas (the man dancing in the video) told me this week:

“I want to become an expert in this…and then build these [partially lined latrine pits and safe latrine slabs] in my community!”

I think it’s a good sign when on a blazing hot, sunny afternoon after a long day a group of 18 men and women are laughing, singing and dancing while compacting concrete (watch the video). And, we’ve already gotten a few interested customers who want to buy latrine slabs from us. It’s great to see the demand for our services in the community!

 

Posted from Nyanza, Kenya.

At Nuru we recognize that improved sanitation is a critical part of our holistic integrated model to end extreme poverty.  Diseases associated with poor sanitation are particularly correlated with poverty and infancy and alone account for about 10% of the global burden of disease (WHO, 2008). Continue Reading…

Posted from Nyanza, Kenya.