Shaqo Abuurka Dhalinyarada Abaay Dhaxan
OBJECTIVE
Improve access to water, sanitation, and hygiene services for target communities
Facts
- 2.1 billion people globally lack safe water at home
- Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for more than 40% of the global population without access to improved drinking water
- 1.1 billion people (15 per cent of the global population) practice open defecation; 949 million open defecators live in rural areas.
- 842 000 people are estimated to die each year from diarrhoea as a result of unsafe drinking water, sanitation, and hand hygiene.
Our Approach
Stichting enhances access to clean and portable water to households and their livestock by promoting rain water harvesting technologies to adapt to climate change through the establishment of underground water harvesting tanks, drilling of boreholes, as well as rehabilitation and improvement of water pans and shallow wells. To reverse this phenomenon, RACIDA is working to end open defecation through awareness creation, information sharing, and spurring behavior change in an effort to bridge the gap between building of sanitation facilities and their actual use. RACIDA aims at empowering communities on good hygiene practices to reduce the prevalence of diarrhea and diseases such as cholera in our target communities. We recognize that a key component to improving hygiene practices is to promote behavioral change within schools and communities. Though education is important to promoting hygiene, we are also aware that it alone does not result in improved practices. Promoting behavior change is a gradual process that involves working closely with communities, studying existing beliefs, defining motivation strategies, and designing appropriate communication tools.