Big Change Starts Small
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Small WORLDMay 2020 Issue 70 Big change starts small In this issue 04 Expert opinion: Building relationships that change the world 06 Special feature: Cleaning up cities with ingenuity 10 Project update: Safe Pair of Hands 12 Meet the change-makers 13 Your questions answered 14 Thanks for staying in touch 15 Virtual speakers for inspiring events 15 A gift in your Will to create lasting change School children in Kisumu, Kenya, are enthusiastic WELCOME ambassadors for handwashing. In this issue of Small World, we look at the power On pages 10-11, we’ll update you on our Safe Pair of disease through improved hygiene, access to clean water of ingenuity to transform lives in one of the world’s Hands project to bring clean water, sanitation and and sanitation services. And we’ll bring our skill and most challenging environments: urban slums. hygiene awareness to Kisumu, the third largest city knowledge to bear in addressing this new challenge. Practical Action in Kenya. Safe Pair of Hands was our 2017 UK Aid The Robbins Building People living in cities, in low-income countries, Match Appeal, and now, thanks to your generosity, We’ll also work to keep essential systems running – 25 Albert Street without basic services like waste management and thousands of families have access to clean water and making sure that the waste management and sanitation Rugby CV21 2SD sanitation, face huge problems. Plastics, rubbish handwashing for the first time. systems we’ve already helped put in place don’t collapse and human waste accumulate in rivers and around in the crisis. People’s lives depend on them. T: 01926 634 400 homes, creating a breeding ground for life-threatening Effective waste management and sanitation W: practicalaction.org diseases. Illness, danger and lack of dignity are part of are gateways to a better life for many of the As we go through this challenging time, I’m so E: [email protected] daily life. On pages 4–5, our Head of Urban Services, communities we work with. And right now, grateful for your ongoing support. Thank you Patron for standing alongside us. Lucy Stevens, will take you through some of the as coronavirus sweeps across the world, these HRH The Prince of Wales KG, KT, GCB challenges that slum communities face. basic services are even more critical. Reg Charity No. 247257 Your words of support and gifts are more valuable But as you’ll see in our special feature on pages 6–9, For people living in urban slums, coronavirus will be than ever before, as we race to help the most Join us online in waste there can be opportunity. Well-managed devastating. Millions will face contracting the virus vulnerable communities. waste systems create jobs, and even products that without a reliable food supply, clean water, income, or /practicalaction can be sold to generate income. Working together My best wishes to you and adequate healthcare. @practicalaction with communities, businesses and government, we your loved ones. can turn kitchen scraps into compost and plastics As a result, Practical Action is reviewing all our practical_action into fuel. We can take informal, humiliating and programmes of work around the world, with the immediate goal being to help communities limit the dangerous jobs like waste-picking or latrine pit- Cover image emptying, and turn them into formal, safe, respected spread of the virus. We have decades of experience Paul Smith Lomas MBE Washing hands saves services. Astonishing transformation is possible. working with communities to prevent the spread of Chief Executive lives in Bangladesh. 2 3 Expert opinion Expert opinion How are slum With waste being such a big to their local council or the water Building relationships that communities affected by a problem around the world, or sanitation company about the situation like the current how do you choose where things that are important to them. coronavirus pandemic? to focus your efforts? And the authorities are able to really understand the needs of the Well you’ve seen how fast the virus We have to prioritise. Our CHANGE THE WORLD community and the challenges they is passed between people living strategy is to identify towns and face. These relationships are the in developed cities like London cities where we can make a real We talk to Dr Lucy Stevens, Head of Urban Services, about Read more about foundation of working together for and New York who can wash difference. It might take a number the complex challenge of waste and sanitation in cities. Lucy on page 12. better lives and new opportunities. their hands as often as they like, of different projects over several use hand gel or wear facemasks. years to achieve lasting change in It’s never about swooping in with And who can self-isolate. Many a community. And then we share a ready made solution. The people people living in urban slums have what we’ve learned at a national who live in the community are nowhere to wash their hands. and global level to influence wider the experts of their own situation, They lack the most basic ways change. We scale up. That’s the and we need to give them space to of protecting themselves. And if approach, and it’s very effective. talk about their own experiences they become too ill to work, then and be the leaders of their own their livelihoods are threatened. What’s the most important development. I love that Practical Coronavirus will be absolutely aspect of this work to you? Action takes that approach. devastating in these communities. The relationships we build. By Practical Action has a huge working hand in hand with Our work in urban slums is amount of experience working members of the community, we just one aspect of our work with communities to make urban build a whole set of relationships that needs your support. slums cleaner, safer places to between communities and To make a gift today, visit live, and right now that’s more authorities. It enables people to talk practicalaction.org/ important than ever before. In urban slums around smallworld the world, rubbish and human waste piles up beside homes. How big a problem is and human waste. It just piles harassment just using the toilets inadequate waste and up on the streets. People live because shared latrines are not sanitation in cities? without access to proper toilets, safe and secure for them. or handwashing facilities. The Well, it’s huge. Half of the world’s conditions are squalid. This has And then there’s the lack of dignity. population lives in cities, and that a huge impact on their health, For the poorest people in urban number continues to grow. Cities safety and their dignity. slums, waste is often the only way can be vibrant, exciting places they can make a living. Many to live. But right now, there are a It’s women and children who face families survive by picking through billion people living in urban slums the greatest hardship. Disease waste to find items that can be where the conditions are incredibly is rife in slums, and children are sold for a little money. There are challenging, if not hazardous. A especially susceptible. They drink unofficial waste workers who risk billion people - that’s one in every contaminated water, and they their lives emptying raw, untreated eight people on Earth. It’s hard to play near untreated sewage. The sewage from toilet pits without imagine, isn’t it? lack of hygiene allows disease to safety gear or proper equipment. spread fast, and many children What kind of challenges are repeatedly catching diarrhoeal Slums are dangerous places do people who live in diseases. It inhibits their growth, to live, but they don’t have to urban slums face? and tragically, many die. be. That’s what we’re working In these informal settlements to change. there are no proper systems For women, the slums can be With your support, Sara in place to deal with rubbish treacherous. They risk sexual was able to build a toilet block near her home. 4 5 SPECIAL FEATURE SPECIAL FEATURE In Faridpur, Bangladesh, we helped informal pit- Cleaning up Community health workers share life- emptiers get the specialist equipment they needed to saving hygiene advice. do their job safely, and to form officially recognised cooperatives, with decent pay and better working conditions. Through a partnership with a local CITIES WITH INGENUITY telecoms company, we created a smartphone app that makes it easy for people to hire pit emptiers and Your support is helping us work with the poorest urban communities to to pay them. make slums cleaner, safer, fairer places to live and work. Transforming waste into wealth Once the waste has been safely collected, the As city populations continue to grow, the problem of ingenious ways to manage waste. We work with all question is, what to do with it? We work with local what to do about the waste this produces is becoming levels of society, from the city’s poorest people to local Sanitation saves lives governments to set up and maintain waste treatment increasingly urgent. Rubbish and human waste pile up, and national government and businesses, finding plants. Wherever possible, the waste is turned into eventually making the slums toxic for the families that holistic solutions together that transform lives. Clean water and soap are simple but powerful defences something useful. live there. Poorly managed waste costs lives. But against disease. We work with communities so they Our work in cities focuses on sanitation and waste can access a clean water supply and handwashing well-managed waste creates opportunity – for In Bangladesh, for example, we’re in the early stages management.