Sahel Solidarité received the Burkinabe Merit Order on 11 December 2010 for its ts work in water and sanitation, health, education and environment. The NGO was the only organisation to receive this prestigious award for 2010.
Sahel Solidarité helps to promote hygiene in 20 remote villages in Burkina Faso. In each village it trains two people to take pictures of good and bad hygiene practices. These pictures are used in PowerPoint presentations that are screened during the evening for the whole village. Because these images are taken in their villages and presented by people they know in their own language, there is a greater chance that villagers will improve their hygiene practices.
Since 2005 the International Institute for Communication and Development (IICD), based in The Netherlands, supports Sahel Solidarité’s work.
Related news: Miep Lenoir, Burkina Faso: Multimedia tools help to change hygiene behaviour in Bokin district , E-Source, 13 Aug 2009
Indian actor Aamir Khan helped launch a campaign to promote cleanliness in schools across the country at a function in New Delhi on 27 April 2010. Mr. Khan is the Brand Ambassador of the National School Sanitation Initiative, a joint programme of the Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD), Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Central Board for Secondary Education (CBSE) and the GTZ (Germany).
(L to R) Kapil Sibal, the Minister for Human Resource Development, Bollywood actor Aamir Khan, Jaipal Reddy, Minister for Urban Development. Photo: Arne Panesar
Union human resource development (HRD) minister Kapil Sibal wants actor Aamir Khan to convey this message to school children: Wash your hands before eating. Drink clean water and inculcate clean habits.
Upset that only 9% school students wash their hands before eating and that many do not maintain hygiene, Sibal plans to educate students about sanitation at schools, through innovative ways. Knowing that his word will not have the desired impact, Sibal has roped in the actor.
Khan will be the government’s brand ambassador to promote healthy and clean habits among children. The minister feels students will listen to their favourite actor more carefully, and he was not wrong in his assessment about Khan’s popularity.
INX News video of the launch
At the launch function of the National School Sanitation Initiative, Khan was mobbed by about 1,000 fans seeking autographs. The students broke past the security ring, and for a change neither the actor nor the minister cribbed about it.
Zee News report of the launch (in Hindi)
Overwhelmed, Khan promised Sibal he will prepare campaign material to promote sanitation. Khan said he would record awareness packages to be distributed in schools in CD format or be made available on the internet.
A school sanitation manual which will become part of the CBSE curriculum was also released at the launch.
As part of the initiative, health and wellness clubs are being set up, initially in the more than 100 schools affiliated with Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE).
Visit the Urban School Sanitation Initiative web site
Uganda’s Minister of State for Water Jennifer Namuyangu Byakatonda is one of the winners of a Golden Poo Award. The minister was the winner in the Sanitation Champion category.
The award ceremony took place on Thursday 15th October in the Prince Charles Cinema in London. The event was organised by PooP Creative and sponsored by the London School for Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and the UK Department for International Development (DfID) as part of the Global Handwashing Day activities in the UK.
The Golden Poo Award for Hygiene Champion went to Mary Swai and Rebecca Budimu from Tanzania.
Golden Poo Award winners Rebecca Budimu (back left) and Mary Swai (back right) with children in Tanzania. Photo: UNICEF
Mary Swa is Head of the Environmental Sanitation and Hygiene section of the Tanzanian Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, and Rebecca Budimu is WASH Specialist from UNICEF Tanzania’s Young Child Survival and Development Section. The award was collected by the High Commissioner of Tanzania on behalf of the winners.
Ms. Budimu has been working with UNICEF as a Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) specialist for the past 14 years, often as the only WASH staff member in the country. As a child, Rebecca’s family did not have a latrine, but instead used the bush. This experience reinforced her commitment and understanding for adoption of good hygiene and sanitation practices – particularly at the household level.
In her work, Ms. Budimu has focused on raising awareness about the benefits of improved hygiene and sanitation issues as well as championed and supported local artisans on latrine construction.
Ms. Swai has spearheaded the development and revision of hygiene promotion tools in Tanzania. She advocates for increased community engagement and innovative approaches as viable solutions.
Golden Poo Award video
The remaining Gold Poo Awards went to the winners of an animated film competition set up by PooP Creative and The London International Animation Festival. The audience in the Prince Charles Cinema gave their votes to:
Number ONE film Dancing In The Loo by Delphine Mandin
Number TWO film A Film About Poo by Emily Howells and Anne Wilkins
Runner-up film Are You Spreading Poo? by Rob and Tom Sears
The final prize, the SUDS! Hygiene Poster Competition Golden Poo Certificate, was jointly awarded to Chloe Izzard and Amy Murphy.
Below are three prize winning animation films.
Number ONE film Dancing In The Loo by Delphine Mandin
Number TWO film A Film About Poo by Emily Howells and Anne Wilkins
Runner-up film Are You Spreading Poo? by Rob and Tom Sears
Dubai Cares and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation have signed a memorandum of cooperation on 19 April 2009 to collaborate on new projects to improve children’s health and education in the developing world.
Speaking on the occasion of the signing, Al Hashimy said: “Dubai Cares looks forward to collectively implementing innovative solutions founded on the full value chain of education, a value chain in which the Gates Foundation’s health and development experience and expertise will contribute to making a lasting impact on the ground,” said Reem Al Hashimy, Chairperson of Dubai Cares.
Dubai Cares focuses on improving primary education in developing countries, while the Gates Foundation’s work in the developing world focuses on improving health and accelerating development. At the beginning of 2009, Dubai Cares announced it was launching a global awareness campaign to promote the integration and prioritization of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene in all education programmes and budgets.
International Medical Corps and Earth Council Geneva have launched a strategic partnership that [...] will take place on both the global and country levels, [focussing] on strengthening the quality, accountability, and efficiency of water, sanitation, hygiene, and other environmental health interventions.
[...] The partnership’s priorities will include:
Providing access to clean water through the rehabilitation and/or construction of new, locally sustainable facilities
Delivering hygiene promotion, water and sanitation education, and behavioral change-oriented messages
Increasing access to locally sustainable sanitation facilities through construction or rehabilitation, as well as providing hygiene products
Providing education on the importance of proper hygiene and its relation to improving health and well-being
Promoting education and understanding of one’s role in positively impacting and protecting the environment as it relates to climate change.
THE First Lady, Janet Museveni, is set to spearhead a countrywide campaign on sanitation.
The First Lady agreed to become a sanitation advocate during a meeting with the National Sanitation Working Group at State House on Monday.
“You have my assurance that I will be there for you,” she said.
“We are working towards the same target, but we need to be serious and achieve measurable and tangible impacts.”
Mrs. Museveni was responding to an appeal by the group to become a promoter of the National Sanitation and Hygiene Campaign.
The head of the group, Sam Mutono, said poor sanitation was one of the leading causes of infant mortality.
He said for every $1 spent on proper sanitation, $23 is gained in averted illnesses, death, medical expenses and productivity increase.
The use of latrines and washing hands with soap after using a toilet contributes to better health, he added.
“In Rukungiri where the latrine coverage is 99%, households still suffer from waterborne diseases,” he said, adding that this was because washing hands was not emphasised.
He said Mrs. Museveni should mobilise resources to promote the cause.
The sanitation group comprises the ministries of health, education, water and environment. It is supported by non-governmental organisations like WaterAid, Africare, Unicef and the World Bank.
Dr. Jacqueline (Jackie) Kirk, who had recently been appointed Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Education at McGill University, was killed together with three other colleagues in southern Afghanistan on 13 August 2008 while working for the New York-based International Rescue Committee. Shirley Case, Nicole Dial and Jackie Kirk were returning to Kabul with International Rescue Committee drivers Mohammad Aimal and Zabiullah from Paktya, Afghanistan. They had spent the past two days meeting with the local community about an International Rescue Committee project that aids children with disabilities. The three women and driver Mohammad Aimal were killed. Zabiullah was severely wounded. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.
Jackie Kirk obtained her PhD at McGill in 2002 and had worked with the International Rescue Committee since 2004 in helping to support its education programmes worldwide.
She was founding co-editor of the upcoming journal Girlhood Studies, and a former Research Associate at the McGill Centre for Research and Teaching on Women. Her research focused especially on adolescent girls’ and young women’s education.
One of the topics she wrote on was menstrual hygiene. Her article “Menstruation is on her mind: Girl-centred, holistic thinking for school sanitation” which she co-authored with Marni Sommer, appeared in April 2008 issue of Notes and News published by IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre.
The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine have promoted Dr 
