GIWA conducted a WASH on Wheels community awareness programme recently at Nayagaon village in Haridwar district. GIWA community mobilizer, RC, had gone there a day in advance to coordinate the event. Several videos were screened, including HH Pujya Swami Chidanand Saraswatiji’s statement on the importance of toilets, Ganga Action Parivar and GIWA’s film about conserving River Ganga, the story of the “whistle gang” and Jeevika-Bihar’s ODF success story. Every screening was followed by a dialogue with the audience.
Photographs of GIWA’s Toilet Building 101 course for women were also displayed onscreen. This led to a discussion on toilet construction. Some villagers held a false impression that building a single toilet would cost one lakh rupees. The GIWA team responded to this misunderstanding with the help of the local Women for WASH participants who had attended the Toilet Building training. These women explained that a toilet could be built for just around ten thousand rupees.
There were questions about the size of the toilet pit and other technical matters, which were answered by the GIWA team to everybody’s satisfaction. Many of the residents showed keenness to have their household toilets built and gave their names to the GIWA team.
GIWA Team: Samuel Herbert, Vishal Bhatt, R. C. Shah
