Kenya

The WASHplus project in Kenya supports the Ministry of Health and its partners to integrate improved water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) practices into HIV policies and activities. The project works closely with communities, encouraging households to identify small doable actions they can take to improve health and prevent diarrhea.

This report presents the findings of a baseline survey that WASHplus conducted in 2013 in households with targeted vulnerable populations in three strata: peri-urban, rural, and semi-nomadic. A total of 3,211 households meeting specific eligibility criteria were visited in Kenya.

James Yatich, a public health officer in Kenya’s Central Province, has been supporting frontline community health workers involved in home-based care for people living with HIV. James realized that bedridden clients who could not use the toilet on their own posed a major challenge. “When I told them that they had to use the toilet to prevent diarrhea, they asked me how?”

USAID’s WASHplus project is working with the Ministry of Health and community groups to promote healthy WASH practices alongside existing interventions for people with HIV and their households across Kenya. The project is building the capacity of Kenya’s public health system in WASH-HIV integration at all levels by training health workers in an approach that encourages small doable actions, which are feasible steps that move people towards an ideal behavior.

In Kenya WASHplus and the Ministry of Health (MOH) are training community health workers and recruiting natural leaders to advance sanitation among vulnerable households. Using a small doable action approach, trainees work with households to make simple improvements to ensure all family members can access a latrine and a hand washing station.

Schools often provide models for desired behaviors that we hope children will bring back home. While implementing a community-led total sanitation effort in Maai Mahu division, Kenya, the WASHplus project found that young children in early childhood development (ECD) centers were openly defecating at school.

Three years ago, Teresia Murugi, a mother of three from Maai Mahiu, Kenya, was diagnosed with spinal tuberculosis. She now walks with the support of crutches. Although doctors told her she may never walk again unaided, she believes that one day she will. Her strong conviction comes from improvements she made in the hospital after being bedridden for six months.

Maureen Awour, 37, is a single mother living with HIV in Kibera, a sprawling low-income settlement in Kenya’s capital Nairobi. Her health declined drastically late last year when she contracted meningitis and was hospitalized for several weeks. She is now recovering at home, but she is now bedridden and cared for by her sister Lynne Awour.

The WASHplus project has trained more than 300 public health officers across Kenya to integrate water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) messages into interventions for people living with HIV. The officials have, in turn, trained over 1,500 frontline community volunteers to help HIV-positive individuals practice good hygiene.

A nerve disorder transformed a gregarious man into a shut-in. With the help of a WASHplus-trained community health volunteer, he has a new latrine, built-in commode, and supportive rails that deliver the promise of improved hygiene and dignity.