LOEP speaks about the Handwashing Hygiene Project on Georgia Public Broadcasting

We were pleased to have the opportunity to discuss the LOEP Handwashing Hygiene Project this afternoon with Georgia Public Broadcasting. You can listen to the interview online here.

Clean is not the same as Sanitary

The last distribution of Handwashing Hygiene stations included stations placed at two clinics where women were in labor and there was no access to hand washing.   A number of LOEP donors were shocked to see that and want to understand how such a situation could exist.  

It all relates to water quality and accessibility in Africa  -  Liberia in particular.

In Liberia running water is not available in most homes.  There are no water treatment plants or sewage treatment facilities.  Household water for cooking and washing is ground water accessed by pumps and pulled from depths that would not meet health standards in other parts of the world.  Ground water is not drawn from deep wells but is close to the earth’s surface and vulnerable to contaminants.  In Liberia, conventional plumbing is uncommon, latrines are everywhere and open defecation is practiced.  Bottled water is only available to very few who can afford it and everyone else uses what is available.  The World Health Organization estimates that up to 40% of Liberians have no access to safe, clean water protected from outside contamination, particularly fesces.  It is common in Liberia for clinics and hospitals, including those treating Ebola patients, to use water that is accessible - there are no alternatives to contaminated ground water.

The lack of access to safe, clean water is, in and of itself, a health crisis in Africa.  According to WHO statistics, more than 65% of hospital patients in African hospitals are treated for illnesses related to contaminated water.  In this time of Ebola that statistic is chilling considering how unsanitary water is in Liberia.  Washing with ground water can remove dirt or blood, for example, and the skin surface may appear clean.  But water alone does not remove bacteria and viruses and only bleach can remove Ebola virus!  Clean is a woefully insufficient standard when ebola is a threat, especially in a setting with sick patients.  Clean just is not the same as sanitary.  

 

Health officials are looking closely at Nigeria where the Ebola virus seems to have been successfully contained.  According to Michael Ojo, country representative of global water charity Water Aid, a handwashing campaign was immediately put in place as a direct response to the Ebola outbreak in Nigeria.  Ojo believes the handwashing campaign may have played a major role in Nigeria’s (so far) successful containment Ebola.

There is no data directly linking the ebola outbreak to lack of access to clean water, but there is plenty of data that proves hand washing with soap in clean water is the first line of defense in basic disease prevention. 

No School and Teaching Tools

This time of year these teachers would normally be getting ready for opening day at Lott Carey Mission School.  All the excitement of setting up classrooms, planning new and exciting lessons, anticipation of greeting new and returning students – it is part of the rhythm of school life for teachers everywhere.  This year is different. 

Liberia’s teachers are idled and facing the hardship of no income during a national emergency.  School in Liberia has been suspended indefinitely as part of the government response to Ebola.

Some teachers at Lott Carey Mission School have put aside their own hardships and volunteered for the LOEP Team to plan and carry out LOEP's Handwashing Hygiene Project.  The project, funded by LOEP, is being led on the ground in Liberia by LOEP Volunteer Field Officer, Rosa Allen (at left in photo).  Mrs. Allen is vice principal at Lott Carey Mission School and a longtime LOEP volunteer and Team Leader.  She has developed a highly effective plan for distributing hundreds of LOEP Handwashing Hygiene Stations to rural communities in Liberia and recruited a volunteer corps of teachers from Lott Carey to carry out the project. 

Ebola education efforts by government and health care workers have encountered confusion, fear and suspicion in rural areas where Liberians have little understanding of disease prevention or the deadly virus.  Some believe the epidemic is a government plot, others suspect it is a curse, and others simply do not believe it exists.  Teachers are familiar and trusted community helpers, however - not intimidating to villagers in rural areas.  The teacher team seized on the LOEP project as a teaching tool and built a simple education plan into the project.  

Each Handwashing Hygiene Station is delivered with a lesson on basic hygiene and disease prevention with emphasis on handwashing and Ebola awareness information.  They also do a one month follow-up session to make sure each station is being maintained and that the water is properly sanitized.  LOEP volunteer teachers report remarkable success with the Handwashing Hygiene project as a tool for educating about basic disease prevention and raising Ebola awareness and word has spread.
  
The project has gained traction and Handwashing Hygiene Stations are in demand.  Mrs. Allen recently returned home from distributing more than a hundred LOEP units to find a delegation of women waiting respectfully at her front gate.  They had traveled considerable distance on foot to ask that a LOEP Handwashing Station be placed in their community. There were no more units left. She had to put their names on a waiting list - the list is growing every day! 

LOEP Handwashing Hygiene Project is supported totally by LOEP donors.  Each unit costs $20 for a station, one month supply of sanitizer, education on disease prevention and one-month follow-up. 

Women from a rural community arrive to ask LOEP Volunteer Field Officer Rosa Allen, to place a LOEP Handwashing Hygiene Station in their village.  No more units are available and they have been wait-listed until more units can be purchased.  Donate NOW!

DONATIONS via PayPal at www.loeproject.org

Why Handwashing Stations to Combat Ebola?

LOEP is an education-focused organization.  Our work is always aimed at assisting efforts to educate Liberian children and supporting Liberian schools achieve education goals.  Thanks to the Internet, we are always in touch with events in Liberia and stay connected with our partner schools and teachers through social media.  The steadily growing fear and concern about Ebola was clear even from afar over the past few months. LOEP volunteers became particularly concerned about what effect the mounting widespread public fear would have on children.

When the World Health Organization announced the Ebola virus in West Africa had spiraled out of control, LOEP volunteers knew the crisis called for us to respond.  LOEP volunteers studied the public health campaign work of WHO, Red Cross and other major health organizations and recognized our response had to meet the following conditions:
1. simple, effective inexpensive project supportive of health education programs in Liberia
2. Help children overcome fear/helplessness by encouraging proactive, self-care hygiene practice
3. Promote development of lifelong hygienic practices that will last long beyond the current crisis
 
Every public health disease-prevention program begins with the most basic hygienic practice - HANDWASHING!

Help us promote this basic hygienic practice.  Your $20 donation will purchase a handwashing station and chlorination water treatment for kids in Ebola-stricken Liberia.

WHAT IS A HANDWASHING STATION?

Handwashing stations currently being used in Liberia and other Ebola-affected countries are very simply a Covered Bucket with a Spigot.  The buckets are filled with water, chlorination treatment is added, fitted cover is placed on the bucket to keep foreign matter (dirt) out and hands are washed under the attached spigot valve which turns on and off.  

The handwashing stations are manufactured in Africa and shipped to Liberia. The stations are approved and used by WHO and other international health organizations for use in places like Liberia where plumbing is uncommon and untreated water for drinking and washing is accessed from community pumps, rivers and creeks.

Supplies of bleach and chlorination treatment are currently very low in countries where the Ebola virus has struck.  In addition, nearby countries are experiencing some hoarding of their supplies of such products (in fear they will be needed should Ebola break out in their own nation). Arrangements are being made now to ship bleach and chlorination products to Liberia for distribution by groups who work alongside LOEP's partners in service of Liberian children.  The products from the U.S. will arrive in Liberia within the next month.  In the meantime, LOEP partners in Liberia have acquired supplies to begin using the handwashing stations in hopes of mitigating chances of infection and promoting good hygiene practice. 

 

$20 buys the apparatus you see in the picture plus chlorination water treatment.  

 

Hand Washing Stations to Combat Ebola

You can help fight Ebola! Health workers know and advise that frequent hand washing is the first line of defense against infectious disease.  A public health campaign encouraging hand washing in Liberia has begun as part of the health education program to overcome Ebola.  LOEP is supporting that campaign.  For just 20 dollars school children in Liberia  can have access to a hand washing station with treated water to fight disease.

For many of our friends in Liberia, hand washing involves more than turning a handle for clean, running water.  This basic hygienic habit is not necessarily ingrained in children who have to haul all the household water in buckets from a far away pump or river.  LOEP has arranged with our partner schools in Liberia to set up hand washing stations for children. For every 20 dollar donation received, our partner schools can purchase a hand washing station and the chlorine water treatment necessary to combat the Ebola virus (and other illnesses). 

Archel Bernard, Friend of LOEP and Volunteer Field Officer, lives in Liberia and provided this great photo.  It shows a hand washing station set up in a private residential compound where she lives in Monrovia. When they spotted the station,  neighborhood children approached and asked permission of the caretaker to wash their hands. 

The goal of the fundamental LOEP health initiative is to help promote hygienic, disease-fighting hand washing practice for children in their own communities.  

LOEP teachers are standing by in Liberia ready to purchase the hand washing stations and water treatment to distribute to schools in their communities.  Although schools are closed now and will remain so until health officials get a handle on Ebola, LOEP volunteer teachers will arrange for hand washing stations to be placed in community locations easily accessible to children.  When school re-opens, hand washing stations provided by Friends of LOEP will be available in school to encourage and instill the basic hygienic practice beyond the current Ebola crisis. 

   

LOEP is a small organization with great friends.  We have received a flood of calls and messages of concern about our friends and colleagues in Liberia.  Friends of LOEP are worried about the children and families LOEP serves.  All are asking, "is there anything we can do?".  The answer is yes!  Your 20 dollar donation will purchase a hand washing station for LOEP partner mission and community schools in Brewerville and Paynesville, Liberia. Check out our website for details and hit the Donate button. 

Ebola Update

The Government of Liberia has seriously ramped up it's response to the Ebola virus. Schools and government offices are closed and additional travel restrictions and testing protocols have been put in place. The very minimal and fragile health care system that exists in Liberia has been totally over-run. Hospitals in Monrovia have had to close due to lack of space, lack of health care workers (some have succumbed to Ebola, others are too frightened to come to work and still others have ill family members at home who need care), and lack of equipment and supplies.

In addition, the Peace Corps, mission groups and major NGOs are evacuating personnel until the virus subsides. Airlines are beginning to adjust flight schedules and service to affected areas and most have instituted health protection measures.

President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf gave this address on Wednesday, July 30.

Please check the LOEP Facebook page for regular updates and see this space for more detailed information. LOEP is extremely concerned for our colleagues, friends, teachers, students and their families who are in Liberia. Thank you for your continued concern and prayer on their behalf.