SAFI's aim is to help rural communities to foster a cleaner, healthier environment - one that meets their needs both today and tomorrow. For the organization, this mission began with a desire to address the growing problem of trash in rural Kenya. Five years later, we are listening to communities by expanding our activities to encompass the full spectrum of WASH.
Rural Solid Waste Management
Waste Management Committee Training
Solid waste management has always been at the core of SAFI's mission. As part of the initial research project, SAFI helped to set up community waste management committees in 18 town centers throughout Laikipia North, East, and West Districts. Dustbins were placed in public spaces, and SAFI mobilized community members to clean up their centers.
Since then, SAFI has worked to provide support and training for community waste management committees in the region, in addition to working with the Laikipia County Government, local civil society, and the private sector to both empower communities to manage solid waste in their community and to install and maintain locally viable waste management infrastructure.
Since then, SAFI has worked to provide support and training for community waste management committees in the region, in addition to working with the Laikipia County Government, local civil society, and the private sector to both empower communities to manage solid waste in their community and to install and maintain locally viable waste management infrastructure.
Expansion to Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene
In late 2011, surveys of 24 town centers revealed that local communities view waste management as one part of the overall issue of usafi (cleanliness). However, in some communities, trash takes a lower priority than access to sufficient clean water and appropriate sanitation facilities. To reflect these concerns, SAFI is in the process of expanding its activities to encompass the full spectrum of WASH.
Chlorine Dispensers
Chlorine Dispenser Installation
SAFI's first movement into broader WASH activities is through installing and maintaining chlorine dispensers in rural communities. The chlorine dispenser is a simple device installed at communal water sources to enable water treatment at the point of collection. The technology was developed and field tested in Western Kenya by Innovations for Poverty Action-Kenya (IPA-K), which showed that communal chlorine delivery dramatically increases water treatment adoption compared to the traditional retail model.
SAFI has been contracted by IPA-K to install and maintain chlorine dispensers in five Counties in central and eastern Kenya: Machakos, Murang'a, Meru, Embu and Maragua. These dispensers were allocated as part of IPA's Dispenser Choice Evaluation (DCE) research project, which sought to understand how local elected officials make decisions about public projects. In this project, elected County Councilors (the predecessor to the current County Assembly Representatives) answered questions about there preferences between chlorine dispenser packages that varied with respect to how their location was selected and how chlorine refills were managed. A lottery was held in May 2012 to determine which councilor choices would actually be implemented, and since June 2012, SAFI has been installing the dispensers awarded through the lottery.
SAFI's work with chlorine dispensers entails working with elected officials, public health officers, and communities to choose water points, monitoring trained craftsmen who install the dispenser, sensitizing communities about how to use the dispenser to treat water with chlorine, and supervising the continual supply of chlorine and maintenance of the physical structure.
SAFI hopes to use this initial experience in working with local governments and communities to implement and maintain WASH technology as a starting point for providing and maintaining similar kinds of infrastructure and services, both in the DCE program area, as well as in SAFI's home communities in Laikipia.
SAFI has been contracted by IPA-K to install and maintain chlorine dispensers in five Counties in central and eastern Kenya: Machakos, Murang'a, Meru, Embu and Maragua. These dispensers were allocated as part of IPA's Dispenser Choice Evaluation (DCE) research project, which sought to understand how local elected officials make decisions about public projects. In this project, elected County Councilors (the predecessor to the current County Assembly Representatives) answered questions about there preferences between chlorine dispenser packages that varied with respect to how their location was selected and how chlorine refills were managed. A lottery was held in May 2012 to determine which councilor choices would actually be implemented, and since June 2012, SAFI has been installing the dispensers awarded through the lottery.
SAFI's work with chlorine dispensers entails working with elected officials, public health officers, and communities to choose water points, monitoring trained craftsmen who install the dispenser, sensitizing communities about how to use the dispenser to treat water with chlorine, and supervising the continual supply of chlorine and maintenance of the physical structure.
SAFI hopes to use this initial experience in working with local governments and communities to implement and maintain WASH technology as a starting point for providing and maintaining similar kinds of infrastructure and services, both in the DCE program area, as well as in SAFI's home communities in Laikipia.
Help us grow! Donate to the WASH program and support SAFI's efforts to meet community-identified needs.
|