Soon after the construction of 45 more toilets Jitpurphedi would be announced as Open Defecation Free area. The VIN team including the locals and volunteers- both local and international, were happy as they could clearly see themselves reaching the destination of the journey that started back in 2009. However, the dream got shattered after the massive earthquake of April 2015.
The earthquake did not just turn the cities into a rubble and left people homeless. The effect was much more than that. They started facing various health issues because the animals died and were not buried which created pollution and other serious health issues. Besides, they were compelled to defecate in open area while living in the makeshifts. Jitpurphedi was not far from this problem either.
It has been a year now since the earthquake. While we are still experiencing aftershocks, VIN is still in the mission to complete the mission of toilet construction halted because of the earthquake. In this one year VIN has successfully built around 180 toilets and other is still going on. Local and international volunteers are vigorously into it.
The toilet construction project is going on in mission mode. VIN targets to construct 112 toilet before November 2016 itself. But constructing toilet is not the whole mission in itself. VIN wants the locals of Jitpurphedi to use the constructed toilet as that is the only to announce Jitpurphedi as ODF. The end result can only be achieved after the toilet construction is completed and people start using it. Though the WASH- Toilet construction was initiated years ago and it still remains as the top priority of both VIN and Jipurhedi community. Though not completely but VIN has noticed behavior change of the locals towards sanitation related issues and other health related issues in the community.
Published on: 13 Jun 2016
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