The Hellen Keller International (HKI) Vietnam cooperated with the management board of Tam Duong district’s Development Support Program, Lai Chau launched a 3-day workshop of “Community – led total sanitation” (CLTS) on May 4.

At the workshop on May 4. Photo: HKI

The CLTS was an approach to eliminate the open defecation by analyzing its consequence and guiding people to improve their hygiene practices. It was introduced by Dr. Kamal Kar firstly in India and then was carried out in nearly 30 countries in the world. Through this approach, people will aware the effect of the open defecation, therefore, they choose the new suitable method to end their habit. The CLTS was different from other financial or equipment supports to build lavatories, it was applied to change the community’s sanitation behavior instead.

The central process of CLTS was “triggering”, in which the facilitators convince villagers to stop defecating outdoor by drawing a map between their houses and the place where they usually have open defecation and calculating the amount of their feces to the environment and analyzing the fecal – oral transmission pathway. After 12 steps of demonstration, villagers will recognize the harm to their health.

The illustrations of CLTS cause villagers’ shock, fear and even shame, thus, they gradually use the toilets instead of practicing open defecation.

Twenty-five participants in the training course included village medical staffs, members of village’s women association, sheikhs and mobilizers of Son Binh and Na Tam villages, Tam Duong district.

In the first day, the knowledge and skills of persuasion were shared by the presenters to the trainees. On the first day, all trainees exchanged their thoughts and needs on the difficulties and challenges on encouraging people improving household sanitation and public hygiene practice.

In the next days, the participants get opportunities to study and practice the techniques of implementing the CLTS in the villages and suggesting the suitable lavatory for each family.

At the end of the training, members have half of the day field tripping a rural compound of Son Binh village./.

Translated by Thanh Van