Clean hands are happy hands.

November 2011: Ms Sie, 67, is delighted that Thinpha, a remote village in Pha Odoum district, Bokeo province, finally has toilets. “It used to be tough during the rainy season,” she explains, “and children often suffered from diarrhoea.”

Her village is the beneficiary of a new initiative launched by Plan Laos to use children as agents of change to introduce good sanitation in their villages.

In a series of trainings held at 6 schools in 3 districts, 300 children learned about good hygiene. Through games and simulations, they discovered:

• the importance of good personal hygiene;

• how, why, and when to wash their hands;

• the importance of clean drinking water;

• how to use a toilet and keep it clean;

• the importance of sanitation in preventing disease.

Thus well-schooled, the trainees shared this learning with their friends and took it home to their parents, encouraging all to stop using bushes, fields and riverbanks as their toilets.

Proof in the pudding

The results have been encouraging so far: Of the 5 target villages, 1 has declared itself open-defecation free and the others are on their way.

In less than a year, from December 2010 to April 2011, 3 villages almost tripled the number of toilets they had, from 35 to 91, while another 28 were under construction.

The reasons for the explosion in toilets are knowledge and communal support. Villagers now appreciate that open defecation leads to poor health and, with each other’s help, contribute the labour they need to build toilets on their own, without subsidies.

 “We learned the disadvantages of poor hygiene and sanitation, and when we built a toilet for our family we saw for ourselves that it is much cleaner and much more convenient than using the great outdoors,” adds Sie.

The Sies and their 14 grandchildren are now happier and healthier and soon, as Plan Laos replicates its efforts elsewhere, other communities across Laos will be too. Working together, the old and the young can transform their environments and their lives.