SUCCESS STORY
Story of Madhu, A Beneficiary of Heeals’s Sanitation, Safe Drinking Water and Girl Child Education Awareness Project
Name : - Madhu
Age :- 10+
Area :- New Delhi NCR Region
The Heeals Team first met Madhu in April, during a workshop organized at a school in the Mullahera Village, located in Gurgaon (Haryana, India). The workshop was created to educate children on the effects of bad sanitation facilities & unsafe practice of drinking dirty water. The workshop helped show and educate them on what they can combat disease and issues arising from low awareness regarding menstrual hygiene, sanitation and safe drinking water practices. The children were taught that it was necessary to pass on the information to their parents and their brothers and sisters and friends.
During this workshop one of our team members, Chinu came in contact with Madhu. Chinu found that Madhu’s attendance was increasingly declining at school, she told our team member that she frequently felt sick and this meant that she was unable to attend classes. Most of time she suffered from symptoms of diarrhea, gastroenteritis or food poisoning and more which more than likely were caused due to unsafe water and bad sanitation facilities and she was no doubt also entering puberty age which further aggravated her problem.
Further interactions with Madhu revealed that a huge lack of awareness towards sanitation, menstrual hygiene and safe drinking water practices was creating a major problem in this area. So the Heeals team then decided to start a workshop to tackle these issues to create awareness and educate the locals of the dangers, illnesses and safe practices that they needed to be aware off.
We educated them in the ways of obtaining safe drinking water, how to keep their environment and surroundings clean & hygienic, we also told them to follow good hygiene practices both at school & at home.
And after our numerous visits at Madhu’s school, we have realized that Madhu’s attendance had improved dramatically, in fact by 100%. She now looks forward to a promising career and a full time education after conquering her illnesses due to poor sanitization and hygiene
To know the actual results, we have spoken to Madhu’s teachers and got good response from all of them and it seems that she is now performing well in her studies and has ambitions of completing all further education. The Heeals Team again spoke to Madhu in month of December 2012, and now she is very happy, she has become more confident and is not hesitant in speaking on such issues because she is able to concentrate more on her studies rather than on constantly being ill, she also told us that she is now following these good practices on regular basis and keeps her parents, siblings, friends and neighbours informed about the benefits.
More recently Madhu has also become the Sanitation Supervisor in her school, who monitors good sanitation & safe drinking water facilities in the school premises.
Methods used by Heeals in creating awareness:
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IEC Tools- banners, posters, interactive games, various techniques regarding proper hand wash.
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One to One sessions with students and our female colleague
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ICT Tools-: SMS messaging to their parents, sanitation films for children viewing, Sanitation to Interact.
We are constantly working toward making more and more girls aware about Education, Sanitation and ways of obtaining Safe drinking water, with your benevolent support we can move across states and boundaries to target more and more girls and families to make their lives healthier and happier.
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E: communications@heeals.org