agents of change - presentation

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Agents of Change Spreading water literacy Addressing behavioural change through community participation www.whosebehaviour.blogspot.com An Index Challenge Entry: Open Challenge 2010 (Also adderesses Health and Sanitation through some activities)

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Page 1: Agents of change -  Presentation

Agents of Change Spreading water literacy

Addressing behavioural change through community participation

www.whosebehaviour.blogspot.com

An Index Challenge Entry: Open Challenge 2010(Also adderesses Health and Sanitation through some activities)

Page 2: Agents of change -  Presentation

Agents of Change | SYNOPSIS

Through ‘Agents of Change’, I tried to bring about behavioural change in children though community participation. The project aims at spreading water literacy in rural Karnataka (India), where fluoride is endemic in groundwater and people are not aware of the problems that are caused due to drinking this water.

The design process involved facilitating a series of participatory workshops to build awareness around water and sanitation, focusing on fluoride for high school students in a rural government school. The children were taken through a series of workshops, through which performed activities that put abstract concepts that they have only read about in their textbooks, into action. The workshops also demonstrated that drinking rainwater is the only way to prevent fluorosis, an incurable disease caused due to drinking water with excess fluoride. This was done by building fun experiences around factual matter.

I translated this journey to produce a toolkit that makes awareness programmes and learning more hands-on, interdisciplinary, fun and emotional.

India Karnataka Pavagada Taluk

Top row: Children collecting drinking water from their common village open well followed by A child affected by dental fluorosis due to drinking water with excess fluoride and is not aware of what it is and why he has got it.Bottom row: Pavagaga Taluk in rural India, an affected area where I conducted the workshops

BibliographyThe green school Manual - CSE

Participatory workshops by Robert Chambers

http://www2.unescobkk.org/elib/publications/nonformal/M4.pdf- A handbook on participatory workshops

On Rainwater and harvestingwww.rainwaterharvesting.org

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainwater_harvesting

On Fluoride and flurosishttp://www.nofluoride.com/unicef_fluor.htm

http://www.indiawaterportal.org/node/736# - A multimedia kit on fluoride and fluorosis

http://www.indiawaterportal.org/node/1130 - fluoride testing kits

General activities around water and sanitationhttp://candleandsoap.about.com/od/soapmakingbasics/ss/howsoapcleans_3.htm

Page 3: Agents of change -  Presentation

Agents of Change | DESIGN

A 60 page illustrated, four colour printed toolkit that contains all the visual aid needed to facilitate participatory activities to spread awareness on water and sanitation. The activities themselves are direct and objective but the toolkit also contains anecdotes and insights that were drawn from the workshops I conducted in Rashtrapragathi Higher Public school in rural Karnataka. It comes with a 9 min 30 sec participatory video that the students have shot themselves, telling people stories about their problems around fl uoride and what they have learnt and liked about these activities. This serves as a quick way to imbibe all the content.

As part of the workshops, I build appropriate technology like sand fi lters and hand washing devices with the children, to introduce them to concepts around water and sanitation. A design I came up with was a low-cost, portable, hand washing bottle. This needs a plastic bottle (to fi ll water in), some discarded cycle rubber tube (to make a water proof pouch for the soap strips), a small piece of soap or paper soap (to wash hands with) and some thread (to tie this across ones’ shoulders and to stitch up the pouch). It costs about Rs.5 a piece and can be made by any student at home using re-cycled materials. It dispenses minimum water (drop by drop, due to the cap) and the students can carry it to their loos (most children walk out of their campus to relieve themselves as they don’t have washrooms in school) so that they can wash their hands with soap after they are done. They can also use it to wash their hands and plates after meals, like the usually do around campus, using lesser water than taps. The bottle can be re-fi lled and used. I made them personalise their bottle so that they feel a sense of ownership and thus use it more often. It also acts like a small nudge for them to wash their hands, each time they see it hanging across their shoulders.

First row: The fi nal toolkit and video and illustrations that were made for the toolkitMiddle row: Two spreads from the toolkitBottom row: Chowdamma sporting her bottle across her shoulder, Sushma painting her bottle and a prototype of the hand washing bottle with paper soap in a rubber pouch

Page 4: Agents of change -  Presentation

Agents of Change | CONCEPTUAL THINKING AND MOTIVATION

When I visited the village for the first time, I was amazed at how the government schools were so well maintained with classrooms, gardens and play areas. Only when it came to water and sanitation practices, especially since this area had excess fluoride in groundwater, the knowledge and facilities were abysmal. The kids thought that the marks on their teeth (dental fluorosis), was because they did not brush right. The government has spent lots of funds and provided many schools with rainwater harvesting tanks (to drink fluoride free water) and water filters, but they lay unmaintained and un-used because no one in the community knows what to do and no one wants to take ownership and help maintain the services that was going to help them in the future. Instead there was vandalism and theft. This was happening due to the programme being very impersonal. The government just builds tanks and goes away, but does not educate the children and community on how to use or maintain it and thus, the whole thing just goes for a waste.

The children are the ones who end up maintaining facilities like the tanks and kitchens in schools and thus this awareness is very important to make any system work.I also thoroughly enjoyed working with them. I wanted to use art and design tools to build experiences around objects and concepts so that the children take back something, anything related to it. I was hoping that conducting these participatory workshops through which the children enjoyed learning, would change the way they looked at science, arts and learning.

These children are the agents of change. So, through these activities, I tried to make them proactive agents and spread knowledge to produce a more aware and interested larger community.

First row: With the children near their dried tank followed by the kids testing their village water tanks for the fluoride concentrationMiddle row: A rainwater tank built by the government, right in front of the entrance of a class! It is not being used as the pipes have been stolen and people are not aware of how to maintain it followed by a water filter that is not connected or being used, due to the same reasonsBottom row: The new rainwater tank that was built in the school I worked in followed by a student painting his thoughts on rainwater on his school tank, to personalise it.

Page 5: Agents of change -  Presentation

Agents of Change | POTENTIAL IMPACT- SCALING IT UP

A large population in rural India depend on ground water drawn through hand-pumps or open wells for consumption. Intake of untreated groundwater leads to excess fl uoride entry into the body. The urban population too, due to shortage of treated water are dependent on groundwater to a large extent. India has major health problems as a result of intake of excess fl uoride through water and food (crops) besides processed food. Throughout many parts of the world, fl uoride occurring naturally have caused widespread fl uorosis, a serious bone disease (dental and skeletal), among local populations.

The 1984, the WHO guidelines suggested that the optimal fl uoride concentration in drinking water should remain below 1ppm or part per million. The permissible upper limit was set at 1.5ppm. Many regions in India still have levels that go up to 5ppm and more, which is highly dangerous. Fluoride is endemic in parts of around 17 states in India as seen in the map and around 25 countries across the globe. It is very important for people to be aware of this and be exposed to fl uoride free water for drinking. The most viable solution of course, is the freely available rainwater.

I worked only with one class and was happy to see some tangible results even for that! Within the same school, there were 200 other students and 3-4 such schools in each village and 300 villages just in this one taluk. They are all very enthusiastic but have no access to material or facilitators. Even the teachers were not exposed to such methods of teaching and were surprised to see students running around and having fun while learning. Through this project, I have tried to add the experiential, human element and get the students to connect with what they see and need to learn, thus hoping they will be the agents of change and spread this much needed knowledge across their community.

First row: Percentage of districts in India affected with fl uoride in groundwaterBottom row: (Right) The map of the taluk (district) with the one village I worked in that is marked. (Left) 30 villages that a local NGO works with, out of the 300 villages just in that taluk. Scaling: Even if this NGO takes this programme up, they would have access to about 30 villages where each village has 3 to 4 schools and each school up to 200 or 250 children, If this whole district is targeted, around 150,000 children, and through them, many more would be aware and conscious. This problem exists in17 states in India and around 25 countries across the globe and thus needs to be scaled up to address people affected with fl uoride in groundwater and fl uorosis even if it means including some activities once a week in their school curriculum.

Dental Fluorosis is caused due to excess intake of fl uoride during tooth development. In its severest form, when the dental enamel molts, it is characterised by black and brown stains, as well as cracking of the teeth

Skeletal Fluorosis is a bone disease caused by excessive consumption of fl uoride. In advanced cases, it causes pain and damage to bones and joints