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The event is carefully monitored by the Hygiene Village Project staff running the programme. A successful triggering is described as a ‘matchbox in a gas station’ where every person is ignited and prepared to take action
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Singo Katanga (center) has come to the village to raise awareness of good hygiene in a process known as ‘triggering’. She gets villagers to draw a map of the area, showing the main features like the road and the river.
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Singo gets people to put a pebble where they went to the toilet that morning. She’s a trained Health Surveillance Assistant and draws people into the exercise until everyone’s taking part.
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Now Singo and the villagers make the transect walk or ‘walk of shame’ by visiting the places they have identified where open defecation takes place. They sing ‘let us end open defecation’.
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A villager identifies a place which was recently used as a bathroom / toilet
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The human turd is collected to illustrate how flies carry disease by showing them landing on the turd and then on the food. It is also used to calculate total defecation per year and how during the rainy season this is washed into the water supply. Villag
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The next stop on the transect walk is the place where meals are prepared. Flies are attracted to human feces and carry diseases by landing on the food.
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Meanwhile fellow Health Surveillance Assistant Webster Phiri leads the triggering for the children. They are also singing: ‘let’s end open defecation’.
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Webster and Singo bring the group back to the village meeting space in high spirits. They are energizing the village into taking action to stop defecating in the bush by building toilets.
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The triggering continues with a recap of how disease is easily spread through poor hygiene. Children under the age of five are especially vulnerable and can die from diseases such as diarrhea.
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A village committee is formed to improve sanitation and end open defecation. Singho helps plan next steps.
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Chief Mbewa tells his village: “Why is there open defecation in the grass when there is a toilet nearby? Whoever doesn’t use a toilet after the 15th of next month must give a chicken as a penalty.”