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March 04, 2011
It has been a while since my last post. Internet is hard to come by in rural India. I was in Bihar for a week. Bihar is a very special place for me. The village I go to, and the whole district for that matter, is so untouched by foreigners. I am an Indian (born in Canada) but I stick out like a sore thumb. My host dad and the neighbors got in to a huge fight one morning because the neighbor was claiming that my host family's goat ate through the one electrical wire that seems to connect our entire part of village to the electrical grid. Not sure what the fuss was about since you get about 15 minutes of electricity anyway, but I suppose, in the village, even 15 minutes is a big deal. My purpose for being in Bihar was to start a community sanitation project. Much like the other nutrition projects I have engaged in, sanitation is a very basic human need. It is shocking then, that 625 million Indians lack access to toilets. The village in Bihar is no exception. 90% of Deep Jyoti students come from families without toilets. Kids are born and brought up defecating in the fields. I suppose what is most distressing about this is the fact that for them, defecating in the fields is just as normal to them as defecating in a procelain bowl is for me. Our first step was to gather community members. We did this last summer. After assessing the need, we realized that everyone understood the importance of toilets. The next step was to come up with a plan. Initially, we thought that building a toilet for every family would be best. But after realizing the cost, we weren't so sure that was a good idea. But money wasn't the only deterant. Though we knew that the community members wanted and needed toilets, we weren't sure how well they would actually be received. So after discussing again with parents, we came to the conclusion that instead of building toilets for everyone, we would start with communal toilets just for the kids at Deep Jyoti's "campus". So my time in Bihar this time was spent working with the construction workers and the community on where we would put these toilets. We decided to start off with 4 toilets in total (2 for boys, 2 for girls). During the construction period, we are going to start an education campaign with the children to teach them the benefits of the toilets and proper maintenance. Furthermore, we are going to employ some parents of the children to keep the toilets clean. This way, we will also help a few families financially as well. Those hirings will be made based on most pressing financial needs. As is the case, there is never a right way in this line of work. You have to be prepared to change and accept the fact that nothing ever goes according to plan. But the more flexible YOU are, the better that will be for you and more importantly the community you are working in.
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