Today we met with a small group from the Tejeres community to continue assessment of their needs and discuss possible steps forward on biosand filters and latrines for the 50 families in that community.
The approach we agreed to was to begin with a community discussion on health aspects of contaminated water, led by the HAF nurse. Second would be a discussion of community health experiences in Santa Clara before and after installing the filters, led by a community leader there. These two discussions would be followed by installation of one or perhaps two filters as a demonstration. With adequate community acceptance, perhaps a summer mission team and a local expert from Santa Clara could teach them the principles of use and care of a filter, and could teach them how to build their own filters.
Regarding latrines, the community acknowledges a great need. Lack of adequate water would necessitate a dry latrine versus wet. As with the water filters, the preferred approach would start with a single dry latrine as a demonstration of how to build and maintain it. Acceptance of the new latrine concept by the community could lead to more being built over time.