Nearly 70,000 people improve health and hygiene practices with help from 730 community trainers

A boy in the village of Upper Mittikot in Mansehra District carries 20-liter containers provided by USAID to help families store drinking water safely.

"I learned how diseases spread and how to keep things clean. This has saved our lives."

-- Yasmeen Shafiq, an Upper Mittikot trainer, on her own hygiene training

One out of three homes was damaged or destroyed when a 7.6-magnitude earthquake struck five districts in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province on Oct. 8. Even before the quake, local access to information about hygiene and health practices was limited. In the quake's aftermath, following good health and hygiene habits presented even more of a challenge to residents with everyday toiletries buried under their homes. "When we would tell people to cut their nails, they would ask, 'How? Our nail clipper is under rubble,'" said Qurban Ali Shah, coordinator of a USAID-funded hygiene program.

To check the risk of disease and increase public awareness of health and hygiene, USAID funded a program with partner In-ternational Medical Corps to provide families with hygiene supplies and educate them in good health and sanitation practices. More than 730 male and female community members identified by their villages attend two-day hygiene training workshops and in turn lead five hours of training for 15 to 20 families within their communities. This community-based approach stresses the roots of disease transmission and the importance of disease prevention through hand-washing, safe food preparation and proper waste disposal. So far, 3,000 trained households have received a hygiene kit with soap, towels, cotton cloth, combs, nail clippers, a plastic mug and covered bucket. They also received two 20-liter plastic containers to store drinking water safely. Trainers say many people reclaimed their personal sanitary habits because of these supplies. "If you have no home, how can you have hygiene?" explained Mundroo Bibi, a community trainer in Mansehra District's Upper Mittikot village.

The campaign has also greatly increased hygiene awareness. "We weren't aware of many of these things before the training," said Gulzar Bibi, a female community trainer from Upper Mittikot. Yasmeen Shafiq, from the same village, agreed. "I used to eat vegetables without washing them," she said. Now a trained hygiene activist, Shafiq taught 30 women in her community how to clean raw food and safely dispose of garbage. "I learned how diseases spread and how to keep things clean. This has saved our lives," Shafiq said. This USAID program will benefit nearly 70,000 people by the end of April, demonstrating U.S. commit-ment to improving health and sanitation practices in Pakistan's earthquake-affected areas.