another reason to celebrate

Did you know that November 19 is World Toilet Day?

I guess some may not be so excited to find out that they share their wedding anniversary with such an event, but I think any effort to increase access to sanitation is worth celebrating (albeit a little late)!

Did you know that:

• 2.5 billion people don't have access to a clean toilet?
• Hundreds of children die each day due to water-related diseases?
• 1.1 billion people have no private place to defecate - they have to use fields, bushes, ditches or even a plastic bag?
• Girls are often forced to skip school during their period due to the lack of clean, private toilet facilities?
• Every one dollar invested in sanitation yields a return of five dollars?

I still remember my experience in Ghana, where I lived and volunteered in a Liberian refugee camp for a couple of months. A group of teenage girls used to walk past each day, off to a bushy area behind the camp to relieve themselves. I mistakenly assumed these girls were also affected by this strange need teenage females have to visit the bathroom together. Why is it we can't seem to go alone?

They told me later it was actually for safety - without clean, accessible, private toilets, the girls were forced to use the private but dangerous forest area behind the camp, where they were vulnerable to attacks from local gangs.

Oh how we take our ceramic thrones for granted!

World Toilet Day aims to break the taboo around toilets and draw attention to the global sanitation challenge. Sanitation issues aren't as 'sexy' or 'impacting' as some other issues, and thus don't always get the funding that they need. But given poor sanitation affects so many people, and good sanitation is essential to a healthy, happy life and personal dignity, it really is a cause worth investing in.

Perhaps you'd like to give someone the gift of a clean, hygienic toilet through World Vision Gifts or Really Useful Gifts by TEAR?

my 9 to 5

I've been working for almost two months now, but have somehow failed to share a single experience from my placement here on the blog. Pole sana. I'm working for quite a large international health organisation* that most of you probably haven't heard of, but is well-known and well-respected throughout Africa.

As my colleagues and I still figure out exactly what I can and should contribute to, my weeks have been alternating between rather quiet days reading background documents until I have nothing left to read and must turn to trashy news sites online (news.com.au I'm looking at you!), through to busy, busy days of deadlines, writing and field trips. Of course, when it's busy, I'm wishing for one of those quiet days, and when there's not much to do, I'm itching to get stuck into something challenging!

But thus far, I'm really loving the work part of life in Kenya. I am helping my team document the successes, innovations and tools they've developed in various projects, so they can apply lessons learnt or models used to future projects and can encourage other agencies to make use of them as well.

For me, that involves a lot of background reading on Kenyan health policy, strategic plans and the target community/culture, developing question guides and interviewing project staff, community leaders and beneficiaries, drafting a document that captures everything I've learnt in an easy-to-read, concise format and working with various people to redraft, rewrite and polish it up into something worth sharing.

I'm getting exposure to a number of different projects and different regions, from maternal and child health services, to addressing female genital mutilation (FGM), to implementing systems to collect important health data at the community level, to projects tackling the huge shortage of health workers in the country. In addition to documentation, I'm also working on some advocacy projects and will hopefully be contributing to business development in the coming months as well.

There's so much to learn and I'm finding it all fascinating. I often get that 'Yes, this is right where I want to be' kind of feeling, which is a such good feeling to get when you hold two very broad degrees, have a wide range of interests and are still not exactly sure what you want to be when you grow up!

*I'm not naming the organisation I work with or the volunteer program I'm supported by to save myself the hassle of submitting everything through their social media policy person, but if you'd like to know more, feel free to contact me via facebook / email / twitter.