Barangay Plaridel, a remote village in the municipality of Dagami in Leyte, has moved on from super typhoon Yolanda. The survivors there now focus on the opportunities rather than their losses.
“Typhoon Yolanda changed our lives. It changed our way of farming and how we do things everyday. We are still adjusting to the changes, among them our village’s improved hygiene practices,” said Barangay Captain Benedicta Gabrieles. Plaridel was one of the hardest-hit remote upland villages.
Coconut farming used to be the main source of income. The villagers admitted that before typhoon Haiyan struck, their community did not practice environmental and personal sanitation.
“Before the typhoon, only 33 households out of 126 have toilets. Everyone in the community disposed feces and defecated in the field, bushes and open spaces or under banana and coconut trees," Gabrieles shared while villagers beside her laugh with disgust and shame.
Gabrieles and her constituents admitted that owning toilets was never a top priority in their community.
“I have been in this village for three decades but I never owned a toilet. If we buy a latrine, our family will be hungry for weeks,” added Roselyn Tulfo, a mother of 5.
A latrine costs about $100 or P4,400 in Philippine pesos.
Doing it ‘Anywhere’
Tulfo used to allow her children to defecate anywhere. “If they want to, I told them to go to the bush but I always reminded them to be careful of snakes and other insects. If the little children are afraid to go to the bush, their playmates accompany them,”Tulfo said.
Often, the children consider defecating as part of their playtime and they would do it in open spaces that also serve as their playground. “At first, you will notice the children playing around the open spaces and when someone wants to defecate, everyone follows. They normally will do it beside a banana trunk or uprooted trees where they can sit down and hide from everyone’s view,” Tulfo narrated.
The adults admit they too defecate in the open.
This behavior changed when World Vision, in partnership with UNICEF, introduced a Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) strategy that included a Zero Open Defecation (ZOD) program.
The campaign aims to eliminate open defecation. It also teaches households to use their toilets to ensure a clean environment and prevent the spread of water-borne diseases such as diarrhea and parasitic infections.
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| Many families here don't have toilets at home nor find them important. |
Big change
“World Vision provided us with relief goods but what made us very happy was when they taught us on the importance of clean environment. They also provided us with latrines. The lessons they taught us will never be gone because it became our new routine,” Tulfo said.
Before World Vision distributed the latrines to beneficiaries, the World Vision WASH team carried out sanitation behavior activities in the community.
The team educated the whole village on how important hygiene and sanitation were in ensuring the health of the family and the whole community. Since then, the villagers observed the big difference from the day they did not defecate in the open.
“Now, we do not see so many flies around us since we started using our own toilets,” Gabrieles said.
But the community said it took them awhile to adjust, especially the children. “The children are not used to use toilets. My child Jeamae, 13, was afraid to use the toilet thinking she will fall down in the hole,” Tulfo said.
The hygiene and sanitation practice in the community has since become a barangay ordinance. Families who do not use their toilets will be penalized.
“The areas used for defecating were converted to vegetable gardens. We are happy that our community has become cleaner and everyone is doing gardening while we wait for our coconuts to re-grow,” Gabrieles says.
Barangay Plaridel is now one of the villages certified as a Zero Open Defecation (ZOD) barangay and is recognized as a role model for other barangays. – Source of Report: Maryann Zamora/Rappler.com
Maryann Zamora is a Communications Officer of World Vision, an international non-profit organization that focuses on the protection of women and children. World Vision is a Project Agos partner. Photo by World Vision.
