19/9/13
Two years ago Christine Adoch was
struggling to find ways to help her community improve their livelihoods in
Kyangwali. Since 2002 when Christine first arrived in the settlement camp, she
has witnessed diseases which have ran rampant due to lack of hygiene and
malpractices that tend to plague refugees when they settle in camp.
Unfortunately because of the lack of education that many refugees have on
hygienic practices, many of these problems persist even after they have been living
in the camp for years. Even with all the programs that AAH has helped implement
about the safe practices of water, sanitation, and hygiene, there are always
some areas which AAH does not have enough people to help cover the issues and
prevent disease.
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| Christine (far right) and her group (minus two members) |
The Women to Women Group, and
similar ones like it, were established by AAH in 2010 to alleviate the lack of
coverage to help educate people on these practices. The Idea was to have the
refugees help educate other refugees; having a system like this one would
increase the chances of educating the communities. If those refugees that they
knew and lived with were the ones teaching the practices instead of the
organizations, there would be a greater chance the refugees would be willing to
learn because they would be more comfortable with someone who is in their exact
situation. Also being close and interacting every day with those who they teach
helps to monitor and control the progress of the hygiene practices AAH tries to
implement.
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| Jiggers attacking feet |
Two years ago when the Women to
Women group was blooming, Christine was selected by her community and AAH to
become the first Community Promoter in her area. Her job, along with the other
twelve women (who were also selected by the community and AAH this year at the
end of May) in this area’s group, help to teach their surrounding communal
blocks the hygienic practices of smearing a house to prevent Jiggers (which are
caused by dust). Jiggers are tiny flies that dig into skin (usually feet) and
feed off of blood, they are commonly found around animals in areas of filth,
usually pigs. Sever cases of jiggers can leave people unable to walk until the
flies are removed by tweezers or being soaked and killed off in hydrogen peroxide.
Though there are few cases that rarely get to that stage, even one jigger in
your foot can cause a restless night sleep.
The process of smearing a house is
a simple one that involves taking a mud and animal feces mixture to create a
substance which holds moisture. This mixture is then smeared in the house to
decreases dust in the household. To effectively decrease dust, the floor and
the walls of the house must be smeared at least once a month, especially during
the dry season. This process along with building a home with a base made of
this mixture will drastically help prevent jiggers from hindering one’s life
and their sleep.
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| Smearing a floor |
Christine and her group were first trained by
AAH on this process of smearing homes before they were able to go out and
educate others. Though the education and the process of smearing is easy, the
difficulty in their job is making sure everyone in the communities continues to
smear after they teach them. The way they educate their fellow refugees on this
process is through demonstrations. Each month Christine and her group goes to a
different block and helps smear four to five houses out of the twenty or so in
the block in order to help teach the people in this community. This literal
“Smear Campaign” is designed so the women can plan and promote the benefits of
smearing in all of their surrounding communal blocks all year round. This type
of campaign has already proven to be the most proficient in getting the word
out and helping to preventing jiggers.
Ever since 2009 when this group of
twelve women who arrived together by convoy with their families to come to Kyangwali,
(aside from Christine) have already had their own experience with jiggers and
other sanitary diseases, parasites’, and pests. Like the refugees they are
helping to educate now, they too were ignorant of the practices to help prevent
many of these sanitation issues, and many of them, if not all, have had
complications with jiggers. In the Democratic Republic of Congo it is not
uncommon to live with animals in the house, in fact it is a part of their
culture to do so. However living with animals only raises the chance of having
jiggers or other diseases in the house. Ever
since they had become apart of this group and learned these prevention methods,
none of these ladies or their families have had any further problems with
jiggers. Their success stories and their demonstrations have incited other to
do the same thing in their homes. Ever since this group has been implemented
the rate of jiggers has greatly decreased in the areas in which they have
demonstrated.
Jiggers are not the only issue
that these women have faced in this group. Being a part of this group, the
first of its kind, and helping to teach others (they mainly teach other women) goes
against many of the cultural norms that have been in place for generations. In the
Congolese and most of the other African cultures the males are the ones who
construct the houses and are even the ones to smear the homes. However once the
men construct the homes for their families, they often neglect or are ignorant
of the importance of continually smearing the houses.
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| Christine's village, the base around the houses is to prevent jiggers and other dust born diseases. |
The women’s role in the household
has always been along the same lines of bearing and raising the family while
taking care of their needs. If one of the children got sick or had jiggers, it
was the responsibly of the females in the household to take care of the illness,
the males have no part in the healing process since this is the woman’s job. However
if the women are part of the healing process shouldn't they be a part of the
prevention process as well? That exact idea was the spark that ignited the idea
for the Women to Women’s group. If women have to take care of the family then
they need to be the ones to help prevent the disease, parasites, and pests. Fortunately
for the women in these communities the men have accepted the women’s role in
smearing as long as it does not interfere with their construction. Though the
men in these communities accept only small roles for women, it is a great epoch
for their future generations.
The Women to Women groups in
Kyangwali are not only a group of educators and preventers, but they are also
pioneers. These trail blazers are brave enough to start fighting the old
cultural norms and break down the social stigmas of their people, all while
helping to educate and protect their families and neighbors. This inspiring
group of women preform a very important duty in this settlement camp, but the
most inspiring quality about all of these women is that they do not want to
stop here. They wish to go one step further and learn farming, tailoring, and
other trades from AAH so they can have more to teach to their community and
prosper all together.
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