Duke students educate Haitian families about safe water collection methods

Safe water collection methods

Published August 18, 2009, last updated on March 5, 2013 under Education News

Two Duke University students recently completed their fieldwork project in the rural town of Thomassique, Haiti where they educated locals about the importance of clean drinking water and its ability to improve public health.  Theology major Christina Booth, who is pursuing the Global Health Certificate through the Duke Global Health Institute, says she’s pleased with the results and happy to see more locals start to embrace a safer way to drink water.

“The families I worked with immediately wanted to know when we could come back and present this education session in their church,” says Booth. “I was so excited to know that people were not only interested in adopting these health practices, but were so enthusiastic to want to share the information with more people.”

Water supply and sanitation are key challenges for this isolated community along Haiti’s central plateau, where there is a high incidence of diarrhea and dehydration due to contamination. This summer, Booth and her partner, Junior Meryl Colton, organized group meetings and visited households to promote the health benefits of using water treatment systems. An effective and virtually cost-free water treatment option is solar disinfection, in which water is poured into plastic bottles and then placed in the sun to disinfect.

“Money always comes up as the biggest barrier,” says Colton, an environmental science major who is also working on the Global Health Certificate. “It’s really nice to go out and provide ways people can improve their health without spending money.”

The students conducted water tests for families and explained the importance of treating water, washing their hands and preventing fecal contamination.  They also used a variety of social marketing techniques to raise awareness, including a video at the clinic, radio advertisements and signs around town.

“We hope social pressure will encourage more and more people to take interest in water treatment,” says Booth. 

Teaching good hygiene to Haitian children

Another major component of the students’ fieldwork in Thomassique involved educating school-based leaders on the World Health Organization’s WASH standards in school. WHO estimates that nearly all diarrheal diseases are preventable with interventions that improve access to clean drinking water. Booth and Colton met with several school leaders, and say their outreach efforts will have a lasting impact.

“I’m so pleased,” says Booth.  “When school starts this fall, each of our schools will have a water treatment system in the classroom.  All students will have enough clean water to drink, two hand-washing sites with pitchers, basins, soap, and a very brief sanitation curriculum they can use to supplement their hygiene lessons.”

The students say they learned first-hand about several other health issues affecting the people of Thomassique, including the area’s high death rate among infants, and those children who go hungry.

“There have been many nights in the clinic where various kids who hang around during the day come by in tears, without having been given any food that day,” says Colton. “The clinic fellows have to struggle with this simple ethical dilemma of giving out food often.”

Through the efforts of a medical missionary group last year, roughly half of the schools in Thomassique now have lunch programs for school children.

Students committed to global health

Despite the vast need that still remains in Haiti, Booth and Colton say this experience has reinforced their interest in global health and research-based policy interventions as a way to affect change.

“It is all grounded in what the community wants and thinks is most useful,” says Booth. “By studying which techniques lead to the highest rates of adoption, we can recommend the most effective policies,” says Booth.

Colton says the experience has taught her that multidisciplinary public health projects have the potential to save many more lives.

Find more details about the safe drinking water project. See more photos from Thomassique, Haiti on our Flickr page.

“When school starts this fall, each of our schools will have a water treatment system in the classroom. All students will have enough clean water to drink, two hand-washing sites with pitchers, basins, soap, and a very brief sanitation curriculum they can use to supplement their hygiene lessons.”

Christina Booth

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