The Safe Pair of Hands project improved access to clean water points and handwashing facilities and supported a community-led design and management of these services.
Without access to adequate clean water for drinking and facilitating hand washing, young children are at significant risk of diseases and associated malnutrition. The effects of this malnutrition are stunting and wasting, which irreversibly affect their development.
In Kisumu, Kenya’s third-largest city, access to sanitation remains poor. Low-income households lack these essential services. Since toilets are expensive to build, many landlords only provide a single toilet for multiple families. These are often in poor condition, rarely cleaned and don’t include handwashing facilities. As a result, the lack of sanitation services attracts flies that spread diseases. And with nowhere to wash hands safely, diseases are quickly passed between people, creating an unhealthy cycle where outbreaks are common.
2018 – 2021
Kenya
WASH & waste management
Title: Safe Pair of Hands Project
Dates: August 2018 – June 2021
Location: Nyalenda A, Nyalenda B and Obunga in Kisumu City, Kisumu County, Western Kenya
Our role: We worked with the local communities to develop ingenious, lasting, sustainable and locally owned solutions that ensured low-income communities had access to safe water and improved hygiene services that ultimately resulted in positive health outcomes.
Participants: This project sought to improve the nutritional status of 3,000 children under-5 years and 35,000 people living in informal settlements in Kisumu City.
Project Budget: € 1.1 million
Theme: Cities, WASH and waste management
Lead Donor: Public donations matched pound for pound by the UK Government (UK Aid)
of all cases of malnutrition in young children are caused by unsafe water, inadequate sanitation or poor hygiene
of low income settlement residents use pit latrines, shared with an average of seven households
Practical Action promoted access to safe water and improved hygiene practices by supporting the local community to take the lead in creating new systems, technologies and services to ensure clean, safe water and improved hygiene for all.
In partnership with Kisumu Urban Apostolate Programme (KUAP), the Safe Pair of Hands project improved access to clean water points and handwashing facilities and supported a community-led design and management of these services. Moreover, by sharing knowledge and skills on hygiene practices, the project reduced infections, improved health and life-long nutrition for young children under-5 years and their communities.
The teachings have been so impactful, and I am glad to have received a handwashing facility that has helped me exercise good hygienic practices. My child’s weight has also significantly increased, and she has become a good feeder.
Josephine Muhonja, mother of three children, who participated in hygiene and sanitation training
We conducted planning sessions with community members before rehabilitation and extension of the water pipeline, as well as last-mile connections to vulnerable and underserved households on hygiene promotion. The project also supported 42 ECD centres with handwashing facilities. In addition, community water operators received various training to strengthen governance of water schemes and included financial resource management, infrastructure maintenance and resource mobilisation, while local artisans and local WASH enterprises received training on low-cost soap production and other maintenance of handwashing facilities.
With a working group that generated campaigns and educational materials, the project reached out to households, ECD teachers and those caring for children with key messages on water safety, improved hygiene and disease prevention.
We contributed to reducing the significant risk of children under five years dying or having development problems due to malnutrition and diseases. By implementing access to water and supporting improved hygiene practices, we strived for safer environments for them, their families and their cities through the following;
Ensuring households have adequate, affordable, reliable access to safe water is a crucial building block for development. Through this project, Practical Action contributed to the following:
The Safe Pair of Hands project contributes to progress against four of the 17 SDGs.
Goal 3: Good Health and Well-being
We contributed to ending preventable deaths of children under five years of age by providing clean water and hygiene education sanitation to them and their caregivers.
Goal 5: Gender Equality
The project intensified efforts to ensure equal representation of both men and women in planning and monitoring all project activities.
Goal 6: Clean Water and Sanitation
Safe Pair of Hands promoted access to safe and affordable water and improved hygiene practices by supporting last-mile connections to vulnerable and underserved households and distributing handwashing facilities.
Goal 17: Partnerships for the Goals
We promoted and supported bold collaborations and coordination between county government and non-state actors as an avenue to institutionalising and ensuring the sustainable provision of WASH services for low-income communities.
All public donations were matched pound for pound by the UK Government.
Donations from the UK public supported Practical Action’s work with communities around the world.
Donations matched by the UK Government were used to help families in Kenya.
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