In the blog entry I wrote on August 23rd, entitled ‘On Workshops’, I talked about some of the work that has recently taken my time for ZARAN, the Zambia AIDSLaw Research and Advocacy Network.
Now it’s time to talk about my other placement – working to develop the Zambia NGO WASH Forum. WASH stands for Water, Sanitation and Hygiene education, and the Forum was set up as a national networking and sharing facility for NGOs working in that sector. We’ve got about 22 member organisations as members, including the ‘big boys’– WaterAid, Oxfam, etc. – but also small community-based organisations working at grassroots level to improve water and sanitation in their communities.
The Forum has been going in its current form since 2007. The idea is that by working together the NGOs – as representatives of civil society – can have a louder voice in terms of influencing national water and sanitation policy, but also learn from each other, ensure minimal duplication of efforts, and work together for the benefit of communities rather than be in competition. The Head Office of the Forum – or Secretariat being the term they use here – transferred from UNICEF to a local NGO, the Water and Sanitation Association of Zambia (WASAZA), in April of this year, and that’s when I joined it. Working with the WASAZA staff members allocated to support the Forum – particularly Nina and Annie – I was set the objective of transforming the Forum from an informal network to a formally registered organisation. This involved supporting the member organisations to come up with a Constitution and Strategic Plan that reflected the purpose of the Forum, formalising the membership process, and working towards the holding of the organisation’s first AGM.
These things we have done, or 90% done. But plans and constitutions are all well and good – they don’t mean an organisation is effective! I’d bet most NGOs in Zambia have shiny Constitutions and Strategic Plans that no one ever reads and bear very little relationship to what the organisation does on a daily basis. The Forum will never get independent funding, or be sustainable, if it can’t demonstrate that it delivers added value in practice, not just in theory!
And then along came Sanitation Week 2010. A great opportunity for the members to work together to achieve something tangible. And nicely timed a few weeks before the start of the rainy season when all sorts of nasty water-borne diseases including cholera can hit the capital of Zambia. And we did it!! Between Sunday 10th October and Friday 15th October – Global Hand Washing Day – more than 10 member organisations worked together to make some amazing things happen. Six teams of staff and volunteers from Forum member organisations distributed soap, chlorine, and hygiene training to hundreds of children from 26 schools in cholera-prone areas of Lusaka. On Global Hand Washing Day we held a Sanitation Fair and Concert attended by just under 300 children, also from these areas. We had exhibitors, art and drama competitions for the children to participate in – the very popular ‘draw and colour in a picture of a toilet’ coordinated by Nina on the WASAZA stand being my particular favourite! – as well as three live musical acts. The children all washed their hands together before having the lunch that had been laid on. The event was even opened by the Mayor as well as being attended by a representative of the Minister for Local Government and Housing, both of whom washed their hands to demonstrate to the children how to do it properly – to the great interest of the TV cameras!
By all accounts the week was a great success, and it was so wonderful to be working together with such motivated and committed people towards a common purpose. The challenge now is to get the other 10 or so members of the Forum who didn’t participate this time to see the value of this kind of cooperative working and to do their part in future. And to start working with donors so the Forum can be sustained into the future. And to find and support someone to replace me in coordinating the Forum activities when I return to the UK. Good thing I’m still here for another year!
And it’s World Toilet Day on November 19th!
See the Sanitation Week photos on
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2094827&id=1269166417&l=9a867df5f7
Helen
