CHE Practice

The boys trying out the outdoor tippy tap as I pull the string.

As I mentioned in my last post, the Community Health Evangelism class that I was hoping to teach this Fall has been postponed till January. Looking at the cup more half-full, I now have more time to do a good job of translating my introductory CHE teaching into the language and more time to work on demonstrating some practical examples. To this end, I started working on testing out models for one of the simple practical tools that the CHE lessons contain, how to make a handwashing station or “Tippy Tap” for easy, efficient, and uncontaminated use of water in handwashing. The tippy tap can be made with just some string hanging a disposable plastic water bottle or an empty gourd. But it can be as complex as building a wooden frame complete with foot-pedal and heat-modified plastic bottle with a handle. Either way, you put a small hole in the bottle so that when tipped it only gives out a small stream of water enough to wet or rinse hands, and you attach a string that allows it to easily be tipped and then swing back into an upright position when not in use.  You can learn more at this non-CHE associated water website.

I first decided to make a simple one for our guard’s family and explained to them that families who wash their hands after using the toilet get diarrhea and other stomach sicknesses 50% less than families that don’t. They seemed interested as they just had a bout of bad stomach sickness last week, but I can also see that they will see it as a hassle to do even the small maintenance required (like re-filling the water bottle) for using one in the dry season when the water doesn’t come out of our taps. And it’s also a hard sell for them use one in the current rainy season when we have water out of the taps almost all day long. And I guess that’s where the value of repetition and follow-up is in the full CHE method that I didn’t go through with my guard (they might also feel differently if they had to walk to draw water like most of our neighbors). So, then I undertook to make a more complicated version in our bathroom to help our kids manage water better when we’re short of it and make our water stored in buckets less likely to become contaminated from dirty hands dipping cups in to get water. This one involves a wooden frame hanging the tippy tap over our shower area, and the plastic bottle with the handle, which is modified by melting and pinching it off so that it lets only a small amount of water into the section where the exit hole is. This guarantees that you won’t have half your bottle pouring out with one careless tip and rations the water better throughout the process of washing. We’ll see how it holds up after the excitement of using a new thing fades from us as well!

-- El Padre