STRENGTHEN COMMUNITIES ON SANITATION AWARENESS

Women are one of the most important pillars in a society, it is believed that when you educate a woman then you have educated the entire society, Women tend to be good teachers starting from home to the community at large, however women in most cases have always been given less priority when it comes to different aspects that directly or indirectly relates to them as a society. Back in the old days, it was believed that women should not come out vocally and address their issues, it was considered as lack of respect and immorality, therefore they were left behind in so many issues which made them become less interactive even when it came to issues pertaining defending their rights, Save Lamu has been conducting series of meetings within Lamu County including Women rights Forum, to sharpen their knowledge on their constitutional rights.

                                                                                                                          Women Rights Forum, open discussion discussing issues pertaining constitutional rights in Lamu

Water is life, we use it in day to day activities, the it is an important item to our daily livelihood, Lamu community has been using traditional ways of harvesting water in Djabias, with 90% of the locals in Lamu East constituency using djabias and wells as sources of preserving water, treating the djabias and wells has been a major challenge, Save Lamu however conducted an exercises of cleaning them for the benefit of the community, the communities in Lamu East sub-county have been using traditional ways of harvesting water to preserve them in Djabias apart from getting water from manmade wells.

Save Lamu a community organization in Lamu launched a program of cleaning wells and treating them to avoid waterbone diseases such as bilharzia etc

Pate Island residents, receive chlorine from Save Lamu to treat wells and djabias

According to the Public health officer in Lamu if wells and djabias are left dirty and untreated,it may lead to outbreaks like cholera, diarrhea among many other waterborne diseases both for children and adults. Through the engagement Save Lamu had with public health department, the organization was able to clean more than 5 public wells in Amu Island Lamu west sub-county and not less than 6 public Djabias in Lamu east, Pate Island.

With the covid-19 pandemic bringing almost everything to a standstill, the world is currently on the urge to recover from the losses incurred throughout ever since corona started, however Save Lamu a community organization in Lamu has been engaging communities in sensitizations and several trainings including, Sanitation and Hygiene awareness, Women Rights Forum, sensitization meeting on deffferent topics and maintaining cleanliness.

Sanitation and hygiene awareness meeting in Pate Island, Lamu East constituency

Recently Save Lamu team took it to the grounds in Pate Island to educate the community members in that area on the importance of maintain hygiene and poor sanitation ahead of the covid-19 pandemic, which has claimed many lives from all over the globe, women turned out in large numbers to get knowledge on how to prevent themselves from getting the virus and the protection measures to be taken.

“ It is very important that we maintain cleanliness, washing hands with soap on running water, wearing protective gears like facemasks, face shields and avoid crowded places” said Raya Famau during the community sanitation and hygiene awareness in Pate Island, Lamu East sub-county.

Raya went ahead and urged the residents to make it a habit by regularly washing hands with soap and avoid shaking hands to keep safe from the deadly Covid-19, and most importantly to maintain hygiene.

Raya Famau, talking to Pate residents on covid-19 precaution measures

In 2015, Save Lamu joined a women movement, comprising of women from different nationalities including Senegal, South Africa, Uganda, DRC, Zimbabwe among many others, with main objective of giving women a voice to air their grievances where need be, through the series of meetings held with representatives from different Countries, and women being able to open up and address issues affecting them back in their Countries, the whole exercise gave Save Lamu a challenge to form a women movement at a grass root level, mainly to educate, to become vocal, inform, interact and above all knowing their rights in accordance to the constitution of Kenya voted in 2010.

Save Lamu team had a consultative meeting with the Lamu health nutritionist to set up a garden at the King Fahad hospital and plant nutritious food that will help improve the patients’ health at the County hospital.

Story: Khadija Juma| Save Lamu