Latex Gloves In Latrine Education

By Jen Long

Through the use of a latex glove and some papier mache, an Ethiopian public health educator gets the attention of a gathering of villagers. Instructor Mathios is holding a homemade doll that has a latex glove hidden inside as its abdomen. Water feeds into the doll's mouth via an iv tube, gently swelling the latex glove which gives the doll the appearance of being well nourished.

Mathios begins to tell the tale of a family of five children living in a typical nearby village, a place where citizens use the streets and alleys as their toilets. As his story unfolds, water begins to spring from leaks in the doll's latex glove tummy. The doll starts to shrink as the villagers are told that several of the story's children have contracted life threatening diarrhea as a result of feces contaminating their water and their food. The doll suddenly goes completely limp in Mathios' hands, fluid depleted and all life gone, as he tells his audience that two of the family's children have died of severe dehydration.

This dramatization is not in the least bit a reach for Mathios' listeners. They live and work in a village where the streets smell strongly of human waste and the moral of his tale is quite evident. Educating the people and introducing them to public sanitation will greatly reduce diarrheal dehydration that is a major contributor to their child mortality rate.

Mathios takes visitors on a tour of the town to demonstrate how his program is getting the "latrine message" across to his audience. "We have a model latrine here that is made from locally available resources. Using that, we teach them" What looks to be a little tukul (a thatched hut) is the famous model latrine right in front of the shop where people buy sugar, flour and other materials.

"Everybody comes here. And when they come, we teach," says Mathios. Guards, hired by the NGO that sponsors Mathios' program, are responsible for the latrine's maintenance while health animators teach people how to build simple ones for their own home areas. The home latrine is no more than an appropriately located hole in the ground with a stone to cover it.

As our walking tour continues, Mathios points up to a nearby hill. What we see is a witness to this man's teaching success: Barely more than a toddler, a little child is determinedly dragging a thin flat stone back over the opening of a latrine his mother has dug for the family. Step by step, family by family, the life-saving message gets across.

About the Author:

Jen Long is a glove industry specialist and Director of Web Community Relations for a high-volume online discounter specializing in Latex and Vinyl Gloves. Visit her support resources for those who use disposable gloves, Latex Gloves and Public Health.