Change in every home

Nyak Puteh lives in Meunasah Dayah village in the Beutong District of Aceh. The village is lush and green with a good water source but like many villages in the area, it has no sanitation facilities. Instead, people are accustomed to going to the river or forest when they need the toilet, unaware of the health and hygiene implications.

“It is very unpleasant in the dry season because we have no water to clean up after ourselves, so the village becomes dirty,” explained Nyak. “It’s also a problem if we need the toilet at night because the forest is not safe. There are wild boars and bears so we try not to go alone.”

Although the village once had a public toilet, most villagers were reluctant to use it as they did not like queuing and did not really understand its benefits. However Nyak believes having a private toilet would be beneficial if only he could afford it. He is suffering from tuberculosis and has to pay for treatment, which leaves him with no money to pay for installing sanitation facilities in his home.

Islamic Relief began working in Nyak’s village by first raising awareness about the importance of good hygiene practices and how proper sanitation facilities can help improve the community’s health. The head of the village welcomed the idea of building toilets as he believed it would make the village cleaner and encourage people to take more care of their health.

In order to create a sense of ownership over the new facilities, Islamic Relief built the community’s capacity to construct their own toilets. The programme, in association with UNICEF, provided all the necessary materials including cement, bricks and tanks and trained people in the skills they would need to construct the toilets in their homes. A total of 170 toilets were built by the community, bringing sanitation facilities to every home in the village.