Water/Sanitation

Blog Post:  Posted August 24, 2010, 5:20 am by Pete O'Farrell

Homemade signs and help

Country: Pakistan

Topics: Water/Sanitation, Health, Emergencies, Displacement

This medical tent, operated by Mercy Corps' emergency team here in Sindh Province, is serving about 150 flood-displaced women every day. Photo: Pete O'Farrell/Mercy Corps

For the most part, it looked like all the other tents in this growing camp for internally-displaced persons (IDPs), currently populated by more than 3,000 people who've been driven from their homes by Pakistan's floods. The non-descript white canvas triangular tent was no more than eight feet by 10 feet, with some basic red carpets on the bottom keeping the dust at bay. The only thing that separated this tent from the hundreds of others was a small homemade sign saying, “Mobile Medical Unit.”

In the hundred-plus degree heat, a Mercy Corps team has set up mobile medical tents for women inside this burgeoning camp in Sindh Province. Our team works for days before moving to another camp to provide medical aid. The doctors — working with donated medicines — treat all different types of illnesses such as rashes, water-borne diseases, eye infections from the dust and symptoms of dehydration from the intense heat. Twenty-five women sat in the waiting room, which was no more than a tent with some basic floor mats to keep people out of the intense sunlight. Before the day is over, more than 150 women will be treated.

On the other side of the tent, another Mercy Corps colleague was leading 50 women in a two-hour hygiene lesson. These classes teach women basic hygiene for their new living conditions where the dust, heat, shared water sources, latrines and new surroundings present challenges very different from their home villages. At the conclusion of the course, the women received a hygiene kit with soap, bandages, cloths and other essentials.

The floods in Pakistan are the worst in well over 100 years. The UN says that more than 20 million people have been affected and at least four million are homeless and displaced. Thousands of camps just like these have been set up in cities and the countryside across Pakistan.

Mercy Corps has worked in Pakistan since 1986 and responded to previous disasters such as the 2005 earthquake and 2009 Swat Valley displacement crisis. The experience gained from those previous crises has allowed our teams to efficiently and effectively respond to the immediate needs of the people.

I arrived in Pakistan just two days ago from Portland to lend any and all assistance to our teams on the ground, and I am in awe of all they have done in such a short time.

Blog Post:  Posted June 30, 2010, 12:57 pm by Gilberto Corral

'Buy a water bottle and help kids around the world!'

Topics: Youth, Water/Sanitation

Third through fifth grade members of the Action Centre’s Hang Out for Change programme set up shop selling bottled water near their school to raise money to raise money toward ensuring families in other countries have clean drinking water. Photo: Mercy Corps

“Buy a water bottle, buy a pin! You can help kids around the world!”

This was the sound of “action” that could be heard up and down Warren Street, as Public School 89 dismissed classes for the day. Just blocks away from the New York Action Centre to End World Hunger, the third through fifth grade members of the Action Centre’s Hang Out for Change programme had adventurously set up shop just feet away from the neighborhood ice-cream truck. They were selling bottles of water and homemade pins with facts about water conservation, access to clean water, and the consequences of not having clean water.

After a semester dedicated to visiting the Action Centre every Tuesday in order to learn more about various global issues like hunger, poverty and world health, these youngsters were ready to take action. Armed with knowledge, posters, pamphlets, enthusiasm, and an entrepreneurial spirit they truly intended to combine action with awareness in order to make an impact!

As the first round of students began to be picked up by their parents, guardians, and nannies it appeared the ice-cream truck was the more popular afterschool attraction. These ambitious youth regrouped and asked for my advice on how they could increase business. They were quick to decline the idea of lowering their prices, however. Their rebuttal was that if they didn’t sell their goods for the predetermined price they would not meet their goal of raising enough to purchase both Children’s Food and Children’s Health Mercy Kits. So, charged with raising funds for the betterment of their peers throughout the world they were not about to be defeated by soft serve ice cream.

They quickly upped the energy with which they were singing their catchy marketing jingle and began to march up and down the street holding brightly coloured posters displaying water facts.

A few of the students brought out their homemade sand water filtration systems which they had used earlier in the day during their in-class presentations about access to clean water, and began to demonstrate the science behind these elementary water filters. They used both of these tactics to gain the attention of passer-bys and soon were flooded by children and parents alike who were intrigued to know more about their project and this global issue of which they were so unaware. As the number of students who were waiting to be picked up, and their stock of merchandise dwindled, a feeling of satisfaction could be seen taking over the group. Even their white “Be a Hunger Action Hero” caps could not hide the glow of fulfillment that emanated from their faces.

As we counted the money they had made during their afterschool sale, I found myself thinking back to the beginning of the semester, when these now energetic global citizens were reluctant 9-, 10-, and 11-year-olds. I feel very humbled and proud to have had the opportunity to witness and play a small role in their transformation.

I am also very proud to inform you that our Hang Out for Change cohort was able to meet their goal and raise enough money to purchase both Mercy Kits.

Update from Haiti: A Six-Month Report:

Posted June 28, 2010 by Lisa Hoashi

A New Way To Deliver Water

Country: Haiti

Topics: Water/Sanitation

Mercy Corps has helped set up water vendors to provide water to 12 camps. Families receive vouchers for water. Photo: Nancy Farese for Mercy Corps

Water is available to families living in camps, but it can take 30 minutes on foot to reach a vendor — and often they sell water that is not clean. To address this issue, Mercy Corps has helped set up vendors to provide water to 12 camps and we’re distributing vouchers that families can redeem there. This voucher system is an improvement over delivering water to camps by truck because it reinforces economic structures already in place and, in some cases, helps form a water market where there wasn’t one before.

Here’s how it works: Mercy Corps identifies a water vendor near the camp and ensures that the vendor can sell enough clean water to meet the camp’s needs. In some cases where there isn’t already a vendor, we find a nearby household that has access to water and is interested in starting their own business.

Mercy Corps gives every family in the camp vouchers to exchange for 10 gallons of water a day. Vouchers are distributed weekly. At the end of the week, Mercy Corps pays the vendor for all the vouchers redeemed.

The voucher programme’s strength is in its sustainability — we’re creating a market-based system to distribute water. And it’s a system that will stay in place after Mercy Corps leaves.

Blog Post:  Posted June 13, 2010, 9:40 pm by Julisa Tambunan

Video: Our Work in Jakarta

Country: Indonesia

Topics: Water/Sanitation, Urban, Economic Development

There are so many ways to know whether a project could really have an impact in communities that we work in. The most frequent method use is, of course, conduct a base line assessment (output: numbers) and then conduct the end line assessment (output: numbers) and compare the two of them. Final result? Written reports of numbers and numbers.

And I’m not against number, really. I love statistics. I’d got straight As for the subjects in college (OK, so I’m a geek). But I think one of the downfalls of focusing in numbers and the whole quantitative way of measuring impacts of a project is you don’t really see the community as the subject. And, do you honestly read those written reports?

So by the end of last year, as we completed one of the urban projects that we have in Jakarta, we tried to seek another way to measure impacts. We wanted to engage the community and let them participate in the evaluation process. We decided to do a "Participatory Video for Evaluation," a methodology increasingly used in community development and sociological research that enables a project implementer to do a monitoring and evaluation assessment in a community and replaces the conventional practice of written reports.

It’s a really simple method. We asked the community members to explain the most significant changes that have occurred there during the life of the project, and then made them to film that. We showed them how to use a video camera, and let them to film whatever scenes they wanted to show. Lessons learned? This method is simple, inexpensive (you only need a camera, doesn’t need to be an advance one), and capture the right things. It is a powerful tool to engage and empower the community. It also can be used as an advocacy tool. And highly enjoyable, I must tell you!

In the spirit of honoring the great work of the communities there, I would like to show you that video. The best part is: everything was done by them.

For more information on using Participatory Video, please visit http://insightshare.org/

Posted June 2, 2010

What We're Doing in Haiti

Country: Haiti

Topics: Displacement, Emergencies, Water/Sanitation

Photo: Miguel Samper for Mercy Corps

Mercy Corps continues to provide emergency relief to families living in camps in Port-au-Prince, including water, sanitation, psychosocial support and temporary income through cash-for-work. We are expanding our economic development programmes to Haiti’s Central Plateau, offering cash-for-work income to those who fled Port-au-Prince after the January 12 earthquake and to those who opened their homes to the displaced. Our strategy addresses two simultaneous realities on the ground: the need to continue to assist those still living in camps and the need to help Haitians begin the longer term work of building a stronger, more self-sufficient Haiti.

Improving Camp Conditions

In 28 camps in the Tabarre and Pétionville areas of Port-au-Prince, Mercy Corps is providing access to latrines and clean water, and helping families stay healthy by teaching them good hygiene practices.

We’ve also started a new water voucher system in 12 of the camps. An innovation over distributing water via trucks, the voucher system allows families in the camps to get their water directly from a nearby vendor. Each week, Mercy Corps gives families a set of vouchers to redeem for ten gallons of water a day at the local vendor. Mercy Corps then pays the water vendor for all the vouchers redeemed. The water vouchers reinforce existing economic structures and ensure that when Mercy Corps must end its distributions, families still have a water vendor.

The rainy season has arrived in Haiti. Mercy Corps has helped the camps prepare by setting up cash-for-work projects that mitigate flooding at the sites. To do the work of digging drainage ditches or building retaining walls, Mercy Corps pays camp residents for 20 days of work. This income allows them to prioritize their own needs for food and other supplies and to make their purchases from nearby vendors, which supports the local economy.

In Port-au-Prince, Mercy Corps has provided water, hygiene and sanitation services to 22,000 people, and we are giving emergency income to 9,000 people through cash-for-work.

Helping Youth Recover

Across Port-au-Prince, Mercy Corps is also training teachers, psychologists, and parents in Comfort for Kids. Developed after September 11, 2001, Comfort for Kids is a post-disaster methodology that educates adults about how to help children heal from the loss and upheaval caused by a disaster. In all, we have trained 1,100 caregivers in Comfort for Kids, who have gone on to reach approximately 32,700 children.

Mercy Corps is also launching the Moving Forward youth sports programme in partnership with Nike and several local organisations, including Haitian football player Boby Duval’s Centre L'Athletique d'Haiti. Moving Forward uses sports to promote resilience, teamwork, self-esteem and constructive communication to crisis-affected kids. We’ll train 50 youth workers and coaches at 25 organisations and support them in holding workshops for 1,500 kids.

Jumpstarting the Economy

In any emergency response, Mercy Corps works quickly to jumpstart longer-term recovery through economic development. Cash-for-Work is an early activity in this strategy, providing temporary income to families as they rebuild their communities. We are now hiring the first of 20,000 households to participate in cash-for-work in Haiti’s Central Plateau, an underserved area strained by the influx of earthquake survivors who fled Port-au-Prince. Mercy Corps is providing 30-day employment to both displaced and host families. Each community will choose their own projects to improve infrastructure or agricultural production, such as building roads, rehabilitating farmland and irrigation, and starting nurseries. We are also giving grants of £77USD to 7,000 families to use to address their immediate needs.

To advance the way these households are paid for their work and give them access to financial services, Mercy Corps is launching a mobile banking pilot alongside our Central Plateau cash-for-work programme. In this pilot, 1,000 workers will be notified of payments by text message and be able to store their money in an account that can be cashed at their convenience. An estimated 85% of Haitian households have access to a cell phone, a resource that has become increasingly valuable post-January 12, helping family members scattered around the country stay in touch and find opportunities for work. In the last phase of the pilot, workers will be able to send remittances via mobile banking to family members living elsewhere.

Partnering with Existing Agents for Change

Another important way that Mercy Corps encourages recovery is by supporting existing organisations such as Fonkoze, Haiti’s largest, most innovative microfinance institution. Mercy Corps and Fonkoze recently completed a pilot programme to test the feasibility of Fonkoze offering catastrophic loss micro-insurance to its microfinance clients. The pilot gave 500 clients catastrophic loss micro-insurance retroactive to January 12, clearing the balances of their loans, granting them £77USD to use for any immediate emergency needs, and making them eligible for new loans. As a result of the pilot, 120 clients applied for new loans. Fonkoze will now expand the retroactive micro-insurance programme nationwide to encourage more clients to restart their businesses.

Mercy Corps is also providing Fonkoze with support for Zafèn, a new online microfinance programme that connects lenders with small- and medium-sized Haitian enterprises. Business owners in Haiti have already lined up 200 interest-free loans through this website, so they can expand their operations and bolster their local economy.

Another Haitian partner is Sinema Anba Zetwal (Cinema Under the Stars), a collective of artists that presents multimedia shows to communities nationwide. Mercy Corps is sponsoring Sinema Anba Zetwal’s 2-month Food for Souls tour. Combining film, comedy skits, music, and audience participation, these events educate and strengthen a sense of community and optimism across Haiti. Through a set of films created specially for these events, Mercy Corps’ Comfort for Kids psychosocial messages will reach approximately 100,000 people.

Blog Post:  Posted May 3, 2010, 8:32 am by Harum Sekartaji

Padang: seven months after the earthquake

Country: Indonesia

Topics: Water/Sanitation, Health, Emergencies, Economic Development

Third-graders at Coroco elementary school, Pesisir Selatan district, West Sumatra. Photo: Harum Sekartaji/Mercy Corps

“Now I know what to do when an earthquake strikes. I will hide under a table,” said Nisa, a third grader at Coroco elementary school, Pesisir Selatan district, West Sumatra after joining a Mercy Corps earthquake and tsunami awareness session.

She wasn’t the only one. Almost a hundred of her friends felt the same way, since they’ve never received any Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) information before. Not to mention the teachers who also gathered in the classroom, listening to the materials given and watching movies on how to best react to earthquakes and tsunamis.

My trip to Pesisir Selatan — about two and a half hours drive south of Padang, the capital and largest city of West Sumatra — was one part of my week in the region to gather stories and photos for our upcoming newsletter on West Sumatra Emergency Response and Recovery (WSERR) Programme. I’ve only been with Mercy Corps Indonesia for less than a month, so this was a huge opportunity for me to understand things going on here seven months after our programme started.

Besides grabbing stories from the school, I also met some of the cadre for our hygiene promotion programmes, who were all women. They told me how important the trainings and materials from Mercy Corps were for socializing hygiene issues in a community where healthy behaviour is rare, due to lack of access to clean water and latrines. Maria, one of the nine hygiene trainers in the village of Sago, even showed me how she trained mothers and children while holding up posters and pointing to the picture cards.

Maria, one of the nine Mercy Corps-trained hygiene promoters in the village of Sago, holds up one of the picture cards she uses to teach mothers and children about proper sanitation. Photo: Harum Sekartaji/Mercy Corps

“These pictures really helped me spread health issues. I’m sure people will change their behaviour even if it takes a long time. I’ll be watching them”, she said.

The day before, I joined a discussion between Mercy Corps and the community of Ganting in Kota Padang, on the plan of constructing latrines in the village. This is one of the permanent latrines about to be built by the communities in Kota Padang, Padang Pariaman and Pesisir Selatan after we built 80 temporary facilities during the emergency time.

“We commit to build the facilities together and will use and maintain them with a big sense of belonging,” said Syafri Syam, the community leader of Ganting.

A sincere thank you came from Safrizal, the neighborhood leader of Kuranji village, whose people received 194 recovery kits during emergency and had help them rebuilt their homes. “Those tools from Mercy Corps will be reused for our latrine construction,” he said, while hoping that the people of his village will get easier access to clean water so that they will change the behaviour of using rivers for daily activities.

I also visited Padang Pariaman — about an hour and a half drive north of Padang. I met beneficiaries of our cash grant and voucher programmes. Rini, a voucher vendor, felt so glad being a part of the programme since she can help her neighbors in providing materials for reconstructing their ruined homes after the earthquake. Marjali, a beneficiary of the programme has redeemed the IDR 700,000 (about £47) voucher into seven sacks of cement and six cans of paint to build a new floor and paint his shop.

“I chose to rebuild my shop before doing so with my house, because I could earn enough money from selling goods to keep on surviving. I can't depend on my green beans,” he said while pointing at his small field where he grows green beans.

A week of interviewing beneficiaries of our emergency kit distribution programmes, making trips to latrine construction sites, meeting hygiene promoters, joining the earthquake awarenss session, and talking about the programme with the passionate staff of the Mercy Corps Padang office has given me a new vision of what the organisation is all about. Now I realize how it has reached so many people, given them benefits and the spirit to keep moving on even after the disaster. Above all, I get to be closer than ever with the community. It was such an awesome week for me.

So — after compiling all the data, photos and stories for our newsletter, here I am — making the most of my last hour in Padang to write my first blog. Really glad to be a part of Mercy Corps!

Blog Post:  Posted April 20, 2010, 9:19 am by Jeff Franklin

Struggles in Qinghai — notes from the earthquake zone

Country: China

Topics: Water/Sanitation, Emergencies, Displacement

Please note: this piece was by Yue Yao, Programme Manager with Mercy Corps China, who is currently in Qinghai. I am receiving and posting his notes while he's in the field. He sent in this dispatch on April 18. I will be submitting these entries as I receive updates from him.

Today is the fourth day since the devastating 7.1 Qinghai Earthquake took so many lives, livelihoods and homes. I was anxious to get out to Qinghai and managed to depart our office in Sichuan the other day for the nearly two-day journey by air and over rough terrain to Yushu County. In collaboration with a local non-governmental organisation (NGO) operating in the quake zone, we were able to assess the damage and find ways to help some of the 100,000 now homeless victims. After setting up an emergency operating base just outside Jiegu town, I realized we really needed to get into the epicenter area and assess the damage situation first-hand.

My local NGO colleague and I attempted to hitch a ride with a pickup truck to Jiegu at noon on Sunday, but soon realized it was impossible to get into town by car. I jumped out of the back of the pickup and tried to direct traffic by myself, stopped a Jeep and finally asked a truck driver to move out of the way so we could return to our base to find alternative transportation.

People here are very friendly, even the policemen, so no offense was taken with my proactive approach. We finally managed to get around the heavy traffic by motorbike, but our first relief supply shipment was delayed for over 10 hours in reaching our base, despite the fact that the distance traveled was just few kilometers.

A view from our journey into the quake zone. Photo: Mercy Corps

Our motorbike moved very slowly through all the displaced families, relief cargo trucks and emergency response personnel. We crossed over the Tongtian River (start of the famous Yellow River) and arrived at a small temporary camp that had just been set up. The Dang Dai Lu temporary camp was holding more than ten large Tibetan families, with about 120 people.

Since the camp was pretty close to the main road, it seemed they had tents and at least some basic food items on hand, yet when we talked to the elders and kids, they all mentioned more tents were needed since Tibetan families are often quite big. I discussed with my local NGO colleague the importance of having good coordination and an organised distribution mechanism in place to ensure the victims are helped as soon as possible. We planned to coordinate some emergency food distribution (with supplies from the local NGO) that night once the road cleared up.

Unfortunately, even after waiting until nearly midnight, the road was still jammed full of trucks and people and we could not get the shipment.

An emergency family tent near the Dang Dai Lu temporary camp. Photo: Mercy Corps

We went back out by motorbike to try and reach another big temporary camp we heard about, near Yushu Park. While our motorbike allowed us weave in and out of some vehicles, it was still slow going. We ended up going by foot instead. The living conditions in the Yushu Park camp we very rough. When I entered I noticed how huge the place was, with more than 5,000 people staying inside. My colleague and I walked into one tent after seeing a young lady struggling to care for her husband. He had injured his leg pretty badly during the quake, but they did not have any antibiotics to control infection. We felt so helpless at that moment and wished we’d had shipments of medical supplies to help out. We told the young woman we’d be back and bring medicine then.

We continued our walk through the camp and both soon recognized that there was no safe water resource there. People were collecting water from a small creek, which was heavily polluted and obviously full of bacteria, as there were also no public restroom/septic facilities in sight.

The polluted and garbage-strewn water source that families are using in Yushu Park camp. Photo: Mercy Corps

I have to stop this blog now, as more relief supplies just came in. Will send you more about Jiegu later.

Blog Post:  Posted April 5, 2010, 2:38 am by Katherine Hollis

Toilets and community capacity development

Country: Kyrgyzstan

Topics: Water/Sanitation, Health, Education, Citizen Involvement

I arrived on a typical school day to what seemed an empty school. That was because everyone was in the bathroom!

Mercy Corps Kyrgyzstan’s Food for Education (FFE) Programme, funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), works to improve educational conditions in Kyrgyzstan by providing schools with supplemental foodstuffs and matching funds to build new or repair facilities or purchase furnishings and equipment.

Mercy Corps staff teaches school administrators and students how to use and maintain the new toilet system. Photo: Katherine Hollis/Mercy Corps

I was able to visit a school located about an hour west of Kyrgyzstan’s capital, Bishkek, which built a new outhouse financed one of our grants. This bathroom facility used technology that was something new for both the school and for Mercy Corps. The school first applied for a grant to construct a new pit-toilet outhouse, but found that all the school grounds lie on a high water table, and any new outhouse would have the same problems with terrible moisture and smells as the old one. So, based on advice from FFE staff, the school made the decision to have urine-diverting toilets installed.

I arrived on a typical school day to what seemed an empty school. That was because everyone was in the bathroom! Actually, the school was closed, as the faculty, staff and a student-leader group were attending a training being held on how to properly use the new toilet system, and how to train an entire school on how to use them.

The training was run by a Mercy Corps staff in conjunction with the organisation that Mercy Corps partnered with for the technical building expertise of the bathrooms. As the group watched a detailed demo on how to use and clean the toilets, a staff member commented on how low the walls to each stall were — everyone could see right over them. As folks turned to my colleague to inquire if Mercy Corps would provide more grant money to fix these issues, others immediately spoke up that this was their project and figuring out how to take care of problems was their responsibility.

Two of the new urine-diverting toilets made possible by Mercy Corps' Food for Education Programme. Photo: Katherine Hollis/Mercy Corps

This was a perfect example of the capacity development that our FFE programme incorporates into programming — the school community is responsible for all aspects of the project, from applying to Mercy Corps for the matching grant to fund the project, to budgeting, hiring of the building contractor, and oversight of the construction. Mercy Corps provides skills training and support throughout but, ultimately, FFE puts the ownership of the project in the hands of the beneficiaries, who can then use these new skills to address other needs.

The head of school, who oversaw the project, said that she not only learned about budgeting through working with Mercy Corps, but also learned how to look for funding for future needs from the government or other organisations. She said that the school already has plans to undertake two other needed repair projects now that they know how to do so.

The training marked the successful finalization of the school’s project, and this school community’s pride and ownership over their work was palpable the day I spent with them.

Blog Post:  Posted March 30, 2010, 4:18 pm by Greg Tuke

Walking for water

Topics: Youth, Water/Sanitation

Photo: Greg Tuke/Mercy Corps

“If you visit American city
You will find it very pretty
Just two things of which you must beware,
Don’t drink the water and don’t breathe the air.”

I first heard this song by Tom Lehrer 30 years ago. Sometimes I think we have made great progress since then. Sometimes I do not. Recently, I was torn between these two feelings in the space of an hour.

I headed out to Silverdale, Washington last week to see what a local Global Citizen Corps (GCC) group was up to on this cold Sunday morning. I heard they were doing something about clean water and climate change, and I had a gift to bring them from their counterparts in Iraq.

As I waited in a lovely waterfront park, I gazed out to the windy sea and saw some surprising signage. Tom Lehrer’s song immediately revved up in my head. Just moments later, the song was interrupted and replaced by a loud and enthusiastic chanting coming from a crowd of 40 youth marching down the street.

They were marching the two miles from Island Lake to Puget Sound — from one polluted water hole to another — calling attention to World Water Day, as well as their efforts to raise money for purchasing incredibly low-cost water filters for families in Ethiopia. They ended their march on top of a giant map of the world next to the sea, and stood in solidarity next to the eight countries where other GCC leaders were taking similar actions this week.

Photo: Mercy Corps Iraq

These young leaders all knew that, if we do want to drink the water and breathe the air, it is going to take all of us across the globe — working together — to make it happen.

I offered them two gifts as we stood there on top of the world: a commemorative tea plate Iraqi youth asked me to bring to U.S. youth leaders, and news that the Iraqi GCC leaders had just planted 1,300 trees and organised 2,000 people to call attention to climate change.

I left the park a little chilled, but at least Tom Lehrer’s song was no longer rattling around in my head.