CHILDREN AND SLTS
First Round:
Major issues and questions
· Role of children in triggering, monitoring, verification.
· SLTS – are we talking about the school and surrounding communities in the monitoring and evaluation process?
· How to establish If children are participating fully since they go follow-up monitoring at school level.
· Looking at the children’s plan of activities and following it up fully. Also following up with the natural leaders and the teacher’s coordinators monthly reports to check who is responsible for the children as they go out to implement SLTS/CLTS.
· Explore the protection mechanisms put in place to protect children as they assist in implementing SLTS and CLTS.
For example:
Zambia: we would flag up Child protection - if a drunk man would harm a child after being spotted upon defecation.
Ethiopia: during the monitoring and verification process, a community member could harm/abuse a child as they collect data in the homes so as to submit to their teachers.
Zambia experience:
SLTS – group of children and selected teachers in the schools are initially triggered. During the triggering process of the school, children natural leaders emerge and they undergo training in SLTS and are involved in triggering of the surrounding communities.
Sanitation action groups constitute of adults and children, former after the triggering process, they undergo training and make follow-ups e.g. ensure that all household that don’t have latrines construct them, as well as other sanitation information up as they go along. They also use monitoring forms where they collection information which they take to the health centres where they have environmental health technologies workers who compile and send to the district health office and copy Plan in the process.
Hardware provision:
Plan Zambia constructs school latrines in places where there have limited number of latrines especially when the pupil latrine ratio is high.
Role of children in this role:
Involved in lighter duties such as collection of water to the point where the actual construction works are taking place.
Community adults will do the actual construction – labour is subsidised - now concerns raised; quality compromised thus a matter being looked into.
Ethiopia experience:
SLTS – carry out triggering the schools and where they also trigger the teachers who in turn trigger the whole community/development units Kebele in one day. Having triggered the children, during the verification process, students go to their communities and take data every Friday using cards/sheets and send to their respective teachers for compilation and documentation so as to monitor their communities. Based on that data, the verification documents will go to the sheet eradication committees organised by the communities responsible to certify/verify the village to be ODF.
Collection of data: Children are told to ensure their compounds are free of faeces as they monitor communities, collect data of those who have built toilets, have hand washing facility, toilet lid etc. Respective teacher compiles the data from students and principals use it for further verification process.
The Benefits:
· Using this tight structure of students and teachers has helped in quick/regular/consistent collection of data within a short period of time. Children have played a significant role in rapid assessment data – ODF sustainability after triggering the development area for 8 months. Due to their data Plan Ethiopia was able to see the gaps and is working on them.
· With the implementation of CLTS, if children they keep on collecting data, it will have positive impact on their thinking because they will take the knowledge of SLTS to heart, cultured/influenced to this new change of behaviour. It will be possible for them to have a toilet, have a hand washing facility in the future. It in essence gives them a future today, by being involved in the SLTS process.
Hardware provision:
School have a latrine what is critical is the management of the same, the use and cleaning of latrine is critical and organising sanitation and health clubs in the school; going further than the hardware.
Sierra Leone experience:
Chief and chiefdom health overseer as part of child protection
During the triggering or post ODF or sensitization meeting: chief talks about the rights of children and gives word of caution for the protection of children in cooperation with the paramount chief, to minimise negative outcomes
Innovations and cases = examples
Ethiopia:
One day triggering of the whole community help to transmit messages by diffusion in Ethiopia, they will hear from the other communities as an advocacy attempt – using the community structures.
(Requires committed structure of teachers and students will participate)
Sierra Leone experience:
Explore the use of school health clubs to raise awareness on the maintenance of WASH facilities in post-ODF communities as part of ongoing follow-up activities. The children make use of drama (community theatre) and songs to raise communities’ awareness on sustainable Personal hygiene and environmental sanitation practices.
Moreover, the children execute house to house visits within the communities to assess the status of household WASH practices. Praise songs will be sang for households that maintain their sanitation status after ODF and a call to shame will be said to those that are making little or no effort to maintain their ODF status. This practice by children has proven to be effective in helping communities to maintaining their ODF status
Best practices show that children are important agents of change since they are good at influencing their communities/parents to adopt the CLTS/SLTS concept and put them into practice. This is manifested by their current effort in helping communities to maintain their ODF status after ODF celebration.
Zambia:
Children do the actual trigger with guidance of the teachers to ensure quality.
Other ideas to try
Ethiopia:
Explore the use of the cultural escalation mechanism where the local community leaders talk against child abuse and importance of child protection to minimise the negative outcomes during the initial triggering process and ODF celebrations.
Zambia:
Assess how to employ the Community crime prevention units, helpful government systems in place that has people on voluntary basis from the community.
Sierra Leone:
Find out how an awareness raising health competitions – interchiefdom and intrachiefdom can be an effective avenue to advocate on issues of SLTS and CLTS. Awareness is raised for children not going to schools and those going to school so as to influence their parents as change agents.
Sources and contacts for information
- Dawit - Plan International Ethiopia
- Sifaya - Plan Zambia
- Abdul – Plan Sierra Leone