Mr Joloti is a farmer and chief supporting and leading the Joloti village in Malawi. He is 76 and lives at home with his wife, child, and grandchildren, amongst 141 other households in the community. Whilst Mr Joloti makes it a priority to lead his community, they struggle with accessing reliable and sanitary sources of water. This lack of access has resulted in unsafe drinking practices and thus diarrhoea and dysentery, particularly among children. Mr Joloti says tensions have also risen between women and families as women have had to travel far distances to access water which is ultimately unsafe.
Mr Joloti reached out to Temwa to help with these water and sanitation issues after the community had an outbreak of cholera, diarrhoea, and dysentery last year. Due to the staggering fact that 3 in 5 people contract waterborne diseases each year in Nkhata Bay North, Temwa implemented a WASH project, focusing on improving Access to Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene. This project was implemented in the village of Joloti alongside three other villages.
The WASH project aims to create safer and healthier communities through community awareness activities, providing access to clean water and sanitation, and building community capacity around health service provision. Awareness events have been held, increasing knowledge about hygiene and sanitation alongside other initiatives such as the provision and distribution of water filters, household training, the establishment of WASH Committees, and local governance training.
Only 10% of households in Malawi have handwashing facilities with soap, and according to UNICEF Malawi these minimal facilities are being continually impacted by the increasing number of droughts and floods each year. They state that access to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) supplies is most affected during emergencies. Notably, in March 2024, President Lazarus Chakwera of Malawi declared a state of disaster in 23 out of 28 of Malawi’s districts due to El Niño conditions causing late onset and prolonged dry spells. Therefore, with Malawi currency experiencing drought conditions, communities’ ability to access clean water is compromised further. Temwa’s WASH project was therefore significantly important for assisting Mr Joloti’s community.
Mr Joloti stated, “Working with Temwa has been of great experience, despite people accessing dirty water sources, we are safe with the use of water filters Temwa has provided us with”. Furthermore, “Now almost each and every household has at least a latrine, hand washing facility, and dish rack”. In November 2023, Temwa evaluated the four villages including Joloti that benefitted from the WASH project and it was identified that the number of community members who could adequately describe WASH best practices doubled from 32% to 63%, and the percentage of households reporting frequent occurrence of WASH-related diseases had decreased from 23% to 9.8%. These figures underscore the importance of the WASH projects for people like Mr Joloti, his family, and his community.
The project is a sustainable way forward for Malawian communities, with Mr Joloti stating that not only can every household now drink water safely using WASH practices, but that “after we finish collecting wash filter sales, the funds will be used to top up the water project”. The project has assisted communities with a new, healthier way of living; and done so in a way which ensures they will be able to maintain it with their newfound knowledge. Mr Joloti has already been looking to the future, searching for potential sponsors to help their community acquire taps, ending the long distance which women are walking by having water nearby. He expressed “Thank you Temwa, you show us love just as your name states”.
The positive outcomes of the WASH project for Mr Joloti and his community, alongside the three other communities the project worked with, underscore the importance of the WASH project and highlight the need to expand Temwa’s support to additional communities. Temwa is excited to extend the WASH project to two more villages that urgently require assistance in reducing life-threatening waterborne diseases.
Find out even more about the successes of Temwa’s WASH project in our mid-term report here.