[ePrayer – Pray for the school children in Sri Lanka]
Nearly one million school children – about a third of the school-age population in Sri Lanka – do not have safe sanitation, due to lack of toilets or without water supply in their schools.
’There are schools where children are advised not to drink water to avoid visits to toilets. In 13 years of schooling, children sow seeds not for education but for renal failure. … Girls are regularly discouraged from using toilets and suffer the most and are compelled to absent themselves from school during menstruation.’ said a local NGO.
A local mother said, ’My daughter is about to reach puberty. I am worried about her personal hygiene because the school, despite our complaints, has still not managed to get water supply to the toilet. …In fact, the teachers’ toilet suffers the same plight.’ [IRIN]
Pray for the school children in Sri Lanka:
May the local government cooperate with NGOs, to find out a better solution to solve the school children’s sanitation problem.
May the communities, families and children acquire enough knowledge in basic health, and have the common goal of reaching a better human health.
May the people extend their concern from merely a health issue to renewing human dignity values.
[ePrayer – Pray for Shanti Nepal’s community health and empowerment project]
According to a recent UN report, Nepal has to overcome a number of development challenges including large concentration of poverty and hunger, rising inequality and wide infrastructure gaps… etc. Also, the rising inflation rate was 10.2 % in the first eight months of the fiscal year which has pushed more people towards poverty. Our partner Shanti Nepal is targeting about 105,000 people from 19,200 households in Dhading. Project activities include consolidation of mother groups, strengthening of local health facilities such as outreach clinics and birthing centres, promote health activities and building of toilets.
Pray for Shanti Nepal’s community health and empowerment project:
Praise the Lord that Shanti Nepal’s community health and empowerment project in Dhading has made good progress and it is one of the official demonstration sites for promoting and mobilising community health development in the country.
Pray that the work of Shanti Nepal will bring with good health, better living and good neighbourhood to impoverished communities.
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[ePrayer – Pray for the health and sanitation condition in Niger]
Open air defecation is a widespread hazard in Niger, especially in rural areas. Out of 15.5 million Nigerians, 14.1 million do not currently have access to proper toilets, while 79 percent resort to open air defecation. Contagious diseases are caused by a lack of sanitation and hygiene. Because money is needed to construct toilet and there is difficulty of maintaining the deep pit required for latrine, people living in rural Niger do not use toilet frequently Aid agency attributes this to the government’s failure to honour previous financial commitments in the sanitation sector. [IPS]
Pray for the health and sanitation condition in Niger:
Pray for the improvement of health and sanitation in Niger as well as the awareness of Nigerians on health and hygiene;
Pray that the Nigerian government will achieve its target to increase the number of people with access to sanitation from six percent in 2009 to 25 percent per year by 2015.
Dhading is one of the most impoverished districts in the central region of Nepal. Most of the population is ethnic groups. Nearly 40% of its population lives in very poor and marginalized situation. They are mainly subsistence farmers, surviving by scanty means. There is poor sanitation with over 60% of the population in the district has no access to clean drinking water and very few villagers have toilets. Due to lack of basic health and hygiene knowledge and availability of medical services, child mortality rate is more than 10%. Villagers do not receive suitable medication when they suffered from commonly found diseases as diarrhea, gastritis and typhoid.
Our partner Shanti Nepal provides training and technical support to local clinics through implementing a Community Health and Empowerment programme. In order to improve medical services, trainings are given to local government health workers. Meanwhile, indigenous organisations and local churches are taught how to respond to local needs on primary health care and basic livelihood. Partner also supports small scale drinking water initiatives, antenatal and postnatal checking to pregnant women and teaches villagers about children nutrition and health. For the economic improvement, trainings are given to community development groups on techniques of planting, chicken and goat / sheep raising and handicraft. For improving the health of villagers, the programme actively promotes the importance of sanitation as well as building of toilets. Many villages experienced community transformation because of this programme.
The Kumal community is a good example. Several years ago, only 6 households out of 154 had pit latrines in the village. The level of hygiene and sanitation of the community was low. People practiced open-field defecation therefore wastes laid around and gave off offensive smell in the air. In 2009 partner setup an Environmental Sanitation Coordination Committee to address the environmental health issues of the community. The committee raised villagers’ sanitation awareness through cultural events and audio-visual media. Before long, villagers started to commit in building toilets. Shanti Nepal supported the community by providing materials and technical skill training on toilet building. Villagers then started to dig pits, make walls and collect materials for the toilets. Within 3 months, all 154 households in the community built toilets successfully. Community members have transformed from the poor habit of open-field defecation. Local rules are also developed to keep the village clean. Now the Kumal community can enjoy an improvement in sanitation and a clean environment.
With your support:
HK$250 will subsidise a household to build a toilet;
HK$500 will provide two basic health sessions for mothers’ groups;
HK$1,000 will provide four training sessions on livelihood skills to community groups
