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“We know very well that by washing hands after using the toilet, before and after taking meals, along with other household chores, so many types of water-borne diseases can be prevented from spreading. After getting involved with the Hand Washing Project, which is being implemented by MOMODa FOUNDATION, we are now very habituated to washing hands regularly after toilet use and before and after taking meals. MOMODa FOUNDATION hygiene team trained us how and why to wash our hands”-said Renu Akter.
Renu Akter a 30-year-old woman, is a participant of Hand Washing in Bangladesh (HIB) project. The project is being funded by National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS). This is an experimental intervention jointly conducted by Dr. Abu Shonchoy, Dr. Resmaan Hussam, and Dr. Chikako Yamauchi. The intervention is intended to employ a mobile phone-based platform to enable people to watch digital contents of hygiene-related awareness information, directly on their mobile phones in the form of cartoons, adverts, dramas, and clips. Renu Akter is a housewife who lives with her husband and two children in Jelal Para village of Gaibandha District. Her husband is a rickshaw puller whose income never exceeds their daily needs. To assist her family, Renu also started tailoring at home and makes a financial contribution to the family.
Her family members are now well-informed about hygiene-related information. She looks around her community and finds that very few people are aware of proper hygiene practices. “From my understanding, for handwashing to be effective, it needs to be practiced consistently and thoroughly. People around me have access to soap and water and know how to wash their hands, but many still do not do it properly, timely, and consistently which makes them susceptible to water-borne diseases.” When she came to learn about the hygiene practices through the project, her family members abandoned usual hygiene habits like using only water, ash, or soil and hands rubbing on the ground. Also, they were reluctant to use soap after using toilets and before and after taking meals which results in frequent attacks of diarrheal diseases, common cold, influenza, and other water-borne diseases. When she was enlisted as our eligible participant, a censor-equipped soap dispenser was handed over which can log dispenser use and a Mobile handset, also with custom-made software installed to track video-watching habits, to enable them to view digital contents of hygiene-related awareness information. After being familiar with the newly promoted hygiene practices, her family gets used to adhering to promoted hygiene habits. They are now less likely to be affected by the aforementioned diseases and live a healthy life compared to the earlier state when they were familiar with traditional hygiene practices. “Before involving ourselves with the project, my husband could not perform his regular job, rickshaw pulling, due to illness.
Also, other family members were very much prone to illness due to the use of the unhygienic practice of handwashing. Such measures can help to get rid of the health-related inconvenience and also prevent a wide range of serious infectious diseases like diarrhea and other water-borne diseases. Inadequate handwashing also contaminates food and contributes to food-related illness.”
She also built a sanitary latrine by taking a loan from a micro-credit institution. She learned by watching video content on the mobile phone that without having a sanitary latrine proper hygiene cannot be ensured. To establish a latrine, she asked for a loan and received it from ASA, a micro-credit institution in Bangladesh. She is also very close to making full repayment. The
latrine is well equipped with a water jar, a soap dispenser with liquid soap, and other required staff. She acknowledges that with the help of this project, “we got the opportunity to learn about hygiene practices whereas poor people like us have very limited knowledge of proper hygiene practices.”