Latex Gloves In Latrine Education
It is surprising what a powerful messenger a latex glove can be. An Ethiopian public health instructor, Mathios, uses a homemade doll to communicate benefits of proper toilet practices to a roomful of villagers who are taking some time out from their daily tasks and trade to sit and listen to a story. His doll has a head made from papier mache and its tummy is a latex glove. An iv tube feeds water into the doll’s mouth, gently expanding the glove and giving this doll a healthy plump look.
Mathios begins to tell a tale of a family from a neighboring village who has several children. The unfortunate thing about their village is that its inhabitants use its streets and pathways as toilets. At this point in Mathios’ story, his doll springs some leaks in its latex abdomen. He continues, telling his listeners how the family’s water and food become contaminated from fecal bacteria that runs into wells and onto crops. Two of the family’s children become desperately ill with diarrhea. Just as his homemade doll empties of fluid and collapses in Mathios’ hands, he sadly announces that the children have died of dehydration.
This dramatization is not in the least bit a reach for Mathios’ listeners. They live and work in a village where the streets smell strongly of human waste and the moral of his tale is quite evident. Educating the people and introducing them to public sanitation will greatly reduce diarrheal dehydration that is a major contributor to their child mortality rate.
To show visitors how the “latrine message” is getting across to his audience, Mathios takes us across town for a tour. “We have a model latrine here that is made from locally available resources. Using that, we teach them,” he tells us. A very tiny tukul a round Ethiopian hut), stands to the side of the village’s central shop which sells staples such as flour and sugar. This little tukul is a “working model” latrine that shows people how one is meant to be constructed and used.
Guards, employed by the non governmental organization that sponsor’s Mathios’ work, stand by to maintain the latrine and encourage its use. “Everybody come here, to this shop. And when they come, we teach,” says Mathios. Other instructors are on site, teaching villagers and visiting farmers how to build simple outdoor pit latrines for use near their own homes, using flat stones for covers.
As we continue our walking tour of the village, Mathios stops us and points up to a ridge a few yards away. We see a little child concentrating on dragging a flat stone lid back over the latrine his mother has dug for him. Apparently the message of the latex glove doll has successfully struck a chord with this family.
About the author: An experienced glove industry insider, Jen is editor for an online store specializing in Latex Gloves Sales and Support, and their web library for grappling with gloves. Read and add to this resource, Learning to Cope with Latex Gloves.