Why?
The goal of the project is to reduce diarrhoea and water-born disease deaths amongst children under five years of age, create positive behaviour changes around WASH (water, sanitation, and hygiene), and strengthen Benin’s Red Cross’ WASH capacity. In Benin, diarrheal disease accounts for large numbers of child deaths. This is do to poor water, sanitation, and hygiene practices and infrastructures. The towns of Aguégués and Dangbo in Ouémé department are particularly notable in this regard, both having high child vulnerability for waterborne diseases, and poor sanitation and access to safe drinking water. The project is located in the Kessounou (Dangbo town) and Zoungamé (Aguégués town) boroughs of the Ouémé department. Aguégués is a town sitting next to the Ouémé river, which floods from August to November. Some of the targeted areas of the project in Aguégués are only reachable by water. Dangbo is similarly water-saturated, with only two of the villages in the project being reachable by land.
What?
Reduction in under-five mortality due to diarrhoea and water-born diseases is achieved through developing community resilience. Here, activities such as building bathrooms in the most vulnerable households, constructing hand-washing facilities, waste collection, increasing access to drinking water, and focusing on community-related hygiene in mother’s clubs and schools are carried out. Additionally, Benin’s Red Cross will undergo branch capacity assessments geared towards building aid capacities communities in water and sanitation.
Who?
The project targets over 40,000 people, including women in mother’s clubs and students.