Success Stories

The WASHplus integrated WASH/nutrition initiative in Mali targets 187,000 women of reproductive age and approximately 60,000 of their children, aged 0–59 months in three districts with high rates of stunting in the Mopti Region. One of the project’s objectives is to increase demand for low-cost sanitation among rural households and communities. WASHplus employs the community-led total sanitation (CLTS) approach to ignite villages to collectively abandon open defecation and empowers household investment in environmentally appropriate low cost latrine models.

The Benin peri-urban program has taken a new turn by including schools in its efforts to foster improved hygiene practices. Lack of latrines, drinking water and hygiene is acutely felt by the schools. The 10 schools in the pilot neighborhoods of Enagnon and Agbato showed great enthusiasm and engagement after intensive sessions with ABMS school activities coordinator Victoire Mongbo.

An example of how WASHplus and its local implementing parter WaterAid are working in targeted, hard-to-reach, marginalized communities in Bangladesh to improve sanitation status not only by promoting fixed point defecation but also by gradually moving households up the sanitation ladder toward more hygienic feces management.

Through training and mentoring, the project created a cadre of professionals ready to repair SPLASH-installed infrastructure as the need arises.

Over the past few months, WASHplus through implementing partner ABMS/PSI has stepped up advocacy for latrine improvement in several public schools. One school, with a student population of 1,500, has four latrine blocks that are unusable because they are full. Even though WASHplus/ABMS and school officials successfully lobbied the Ministry of Education for a $200 line item for pit emptying, the urgency of the situation prompted the PTA to front the money and hire a pit empying service soon thereafter.