The Solana Beach ECO Rotary Club (ECO) is supporting a Sanitation Project designed to build 4 latrines, which includes the Tippy-tap soap hand washing station. The recipient families live in the poor rural area of Kos Khel in Cambodia, where decent toilet facilities are big issues. In addition, each family will receive a ceramic water filter to provide clean drinking water. The project will be managed through a local non-profit organization, Latrines for Life, and its partner NGO in Cambodia; Solidarity Fund for Rural Development (SFRD), which to date has constructed 250 latrines. The project will be funded with $500 from the ECO Rotary and $500 from a District 5340 matching grant. The latrines are a "double-pit" system with an attached ceramic squatting base surrounded by a simple enclosure. The latrines will be constructed over a period of three months with the help of the families receiving the latrine. Education materials on proper hygiene and the importance of hand washing are attached to each latrine privacy enclosure. Also, group training seminars will be conducted to give instructions to families on the use of the hand washing station and maintenance of the ceramic water filter provided.
Promoting good health in Cambodia is an important undertaking. Good sanitation is essential for health and well being, but it's not the norm in rural Cambodia, where old habits of poor hygiene are still wide spread. Open fields are still used for elimination of body waste, and hand washing (mostly not done at all) would be with a basin of water, which tends to spread germs from one person to another. The result is the contamination of streams and soils, the spread of disease, high rates of infant and young child mortality, and heavy caseloads of diarrhea and other infections.
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