Extract from SWIFT Consortium Weekly Newsflash – 5 February 2015
The SWIFT Consortium aims to deliver sustainable access to safe water and sanitation and encourage the adoption of basic hygiene practices in DRC and Kenya.
It is funded with UK aid from the British people.
The Tearfund team in DRC has completed one gravity-fed water system (GFS) in North Kivu and is now busy constructing a second. In South Kivu, a Memorandum of Understanding has been signed with Africa Ahead, which is now preparing to begin setting up Community Health Clubs, or CHCs, in the region.
Membership of CHCs is voluntary, free and open to all, with between 50 and 100 people in each club. Members take part in weekly, two-hour training sessions on a number of health and hygiene promotion topics, such as the safe storage of drinking water, or making soap. The activities are designed to interest and entertain members, who are given practical assignments each week. Training lasts a minimum of six months, and SWIFT expects to set up 20 CHCs in the first year of the programme.
Oxfam’s partners in DRC continue to implement training sessions and public health promotion under the Villages et Ecoles Assainis (‘healthy villages and schools’) approach, and establish springs as water sources. However, last week PPSSP had to suspend activities near Kichanga, about 100km north of Goma, as a result of gunfire in the road. They continue to monitor population movements carefully.