Project 5 - Health and Poverty Demonstration Project

Introduction

The health and poverty project is working in four slums in the city. Our work is based on an approach called PHAST (Participatory Hygiene and Sanitation Transformation), which builds on people’s innate ability to address and resolve their own problems. It works with easily manageable participatory tools and aims to empower communities to manage their water and control sanitation related diseases, and it does so by promoting health awareness and understanding which, in turn lead to environmental and behavioural improvements.

Slums in Sylhet:

The population of Sylhet municipality has risen significantly during recent years. Different studies have shown that rapid growth of Sylhet municipality’s population is caused by large influx of rural urban migration. The slum dwellers are said to be mainly migrant workers staying in the town in a not entirely permanent basis, but often for periods of several years. The migrants are driven to Sylhet due to poverty. The deplorable condition of these poor migrants and acute shortage of adequate housing has led to mushroom growth of slums and squatter settlements in Sylhet.

Slums in Sylhet are characterised by:

• festering piles of garbage near homes;
• sharing one well with a hand-pump by 30 - 170 families for water;
• wells - often with no or broken slabs;
• a few latrines with unhygienic condition;
• low level of hygiene;
• very low knowledge, attitudes and practices for using available facilities.

The consequences:

Present unhygienic conditions in slums:

• poses serious health hazard to slum dwellers;
• creates permanent water logging;
• generates a breeding ground of disease such as diarrhoea, malaria, dengue, etc.;
• acts as an obstacle for normal growth of children;
• deteriorates overall environmental situation;

Aims and objectives of PHAST:

The main aim of the project is to demonstrate a participatory method (PHAST) for developing people’s own solutions of health and hygiene problems in order to improve their living conditions and thereby their health. The specific objectives are:

• to assist people in slums of Sylhet in setting their rules for improved hygienic and health environment in their settlements;
• reduce the rate of sickness of children caused by unhygienic conditions;
• to assist women, being the persons of the household responsible for health and hygiene, in improving basic hygienic conditions.

The Health and Poverty Demonstration Project is implemented by Sylhet Partnership in conjunction with OMI and SSKS.

Constancy support for the project is provided by Lis Alminde of Health Internation, Denmark.

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