WASH Training the Trainers Day 1, May 12th, 2013
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With several false starts, the volunteer training sessions finally began. We were supposed to hold a community meeting with all the stakeholders and important interested people in the Commune prior to the training. Ashley was busy with another project, so facilitating the meeting fell to me. I was quite nervous about it, as my Khmer language skills are still quite limited. I drafted a speech and practiced it for several days. The meeting was canceled at the last minute however. It was unclear to me exactly why, but what I thought I understood from Dr. Sera, my Health Center Director, was simply that no one could come because everyone was busy planning a party. My first thought was maybe there is some holiday I did not know about. I later found out he was busy planning an engagement party for his daughter. In Cambodia, politics are very important, and he apparently did not want me to hold the meeting without him present; family party wins over community project. This is not atypical in Cambodia.
With no community meeting, I still needed to speak with the village chief. I headed to Samrong village and had a private meeting with the Village Chief. I explained in more detail exactly what we wanted to do, when, and that we needed him to choose 4 volunteers from the community that would serve as the communities future Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) trainers.
This meeting went fine until the chief asked a few questions there were out of the scope of my practiced script. Nevertheless, the important details were made clear and everything was set for the following week. We would hold a 3-day training on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.
On Monday, fellow PCV Margaret arrived eager to help. Margaret is on our team that authored the training materials we are using. Having her come and participate in piloting the training lessons would be a big help. That same day we learned that Ashley was sick with food poisoning. Suddenly the whole training was in jeopardy. Neither Margaret nor I felt confident enough in our language skills to run the sessions on our own.
That evening, Ashley said she was feeling better and optimistically thought that by Wednesday she would be well enough to come. We rescheduled with the village volunteers to begin on Wednesday afternoon, and planned a longer day on Thursday.
The extra day allowed Margaret and me to do some badly needed preparation buying supplies and reviewing our teaching lessons.
Thursday morning Ashley arrived, and that afternoon, with a little last minute prep work, the three of us loaded all our teaching materials and rode our bikes through the rice fields 6 kilometers to Samrong Village.
Our four village volunteers met us in the Community meeting hall. Of course, our presence was of curiosity to the entire village. Throughout the day, we had a stream of villagers, both kids, and adults that sat in listening, and with any luck, learning.
Pre Test
We began by administering a pre test. This gives us an opportunity to learn what the participants’ current level of knowledge is. It also gives us a baseline from which we can measure the effectiveness of our newly developed lesson plans and teaching.
Diarrhea and Dehydration
The first lessons teach an understanding of the causes of diarrhea, it’s deadly effects – dehydration, how to recognize diarrhea, and how diarrhea is transmitted.
Draining a bottle filled with water and glitter through a hole at its base, Margaret demonstrates how diarrhea is the bodies attempt to rid itself of infection resulting in dehydration, the loss of important salts, and electrolytes.
That leads us into our lesson on the importance of treating diarrhea with Oral Rehydration Solution (ORS) which helps rehydrate and replenish vital salts.
The participants taste both commercially prepared ORS and inexpensive homemade solutions that we taught them to make.
To learn how diarrhea is transmitted, the participants sort pictures that illustrate common diarrhea transmission routes. We then have them identify ways to prevent this transmission, like handwashing.
Handwashing
In this series of lessons, the participants learn why, how, and when to properly wash their hands.
Participants dirty their hands with oil and coffee grounds. The coffee represents bacteria or germs, and they are asked to touch each other in ways they commonly would like shaking hands. As they do, they see how the normally invisible the germs (coffee grounds) are transmitted from one person to the other.
Now, they wash their hands, first with only water. Without soap, the oily coffee grounds representing bacteria do not wash off. However, with proper hand washing technique, using soap and flowing water, the germs come off.
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The final lesson of the day teaches the participants when to wash their hands. They are given a series of illustrated situation cards and asked to sort them into 1 of 3 categories for when you should wash your hands: before, not necessary, and after. The intent is to emphasize the 4 critical times you should wash hands; before eating food, before preparing food, after using the toilet, and after changing babies.
Ashley, Margaret and I are pleased so far. All the volunteers, seem to be understanding our lessons, and getting their importance. Plus they are having fun. Tomorrow the lessons continue.
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Read Fighting Diarrhea in Samrong Cambodia: Part 1
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