FROM THE COUNTRY DIRECTOR
Shihab Uddin Ahamad
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Dear friends,
We all are passing through an unprecedented time. From the information we have until now, it seems that COVID-19 is not going to disappear very soon. Therefore, we have to learn how to live with COVID-19 for some time.
WaterAid's work on hygiene promotion, especially on washing hands with soap and water is more relevant than ever. As such, we started our handwashing awareness campaign at the early stage of COVID-19, which helped communities understand the importance of washing hands, maintaining social distance and other hygiene practices.
I want to take opportunity to express our gratitude to our donors DFAT (Water for Women programme), Lindex, and LIFT (through Save the Children) or their generous support throughout.
This is the first new newsletter for the 2020 calendar year. Several other policy, research and program activities have also carried out during this period. A glimpse of those activities are also included in this newsletter. I hope you will enjoy reading it.
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COVID-19 PANDEMIC
Raising awareness and responding to the crisis
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Handwashing and hygiene behaviour change are the greatest risk-reduction tools against infections and illnesses. As such, WaterAid's work is now more relevant than ever.
WaterAid Myanmar has been working extensively on raising awareness regarding prevention against COVID-19. Since January 2020, we have disseminated Myanmar-specific communications materials on cough etiquette, social distancing, and hygiene behaviour change. We have also been providing awareness messaging to media channels to reach a wider audience and have mobilised our partners to bring awareness on handwashing, as well as establish handwashing stations in our project areas. Our teams are working with local authorities and communities to prepare WASH committees.
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Contactless Handwashing Stations in Myaing
WAMM has designed contactless (hands-free) handwashing stations, which have been installed in Myaing township, Magway Region - one of our project areas. These handwashing stations are made locally and have already been set up at three schools, in Sin Swei, Thet Kal Kan and Thanat Yin villages, in cooperation with the township Education Department. At the moment, these schools are housing people under quarantine for COVID-19, but the stations will continue to be used when the schools resume.
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Women and kids are demonstrating how to use contactless handwashing station in Myaing township before installing at schools.
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Ayeyarwady Region Healthcare Facilities Supported
WaterAid Myanmar supported the Ayeyarwady Regional Health Department of the Ministry of Health and Sports to establish 249 handwashing stations in rural health centres of Ayeyarwady Region. All handwashing stations are designed locally, with easily available pipes and fittings. Where resources are available, contactless (hands-free) handwashing stations have been set up.
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A simple contactless (hands-free) handwashing station is seen outside one of the rural healthcare centres in Ayeyarwady.
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Introducing Tippy Taps in Rural Myanmar
In addition to contactless handwashing stations, we have also introduced tippy taps in Myaing township. The tippy tap is a low-cost handwashing station made from local materials that can be set up easily using only a bucket and four sticks.
WaterAid introduced the tippy tap with its partner Myaing Youth Development Organisation so that families can improve personal hygiene without having to spend much money – they can build a tippy tap themselves using bamboo or wooden sticks that can be found easily in their villages.
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Children making use of the tippy taps installed in Myaing township, Magway region.
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Working with Government COVID-19 Response Committees
WaterAid Myanmar also has been working in collaboration with local lawmakers and COVID-19 prevention committees to install 95 handwashing basins in Yangon’s four townships – Hlaingtharya, Shwe Pyi Thar, Dagon Seikkan and Thingankyun. The basins have been installed at crowded areas such as bus stations, markets and street junctions. The organisation also provided handwashing soap bottles to be used at the handwashing stations as well as 20-litre buckets of bleach to clean unsanitary areas of the city.
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A community member uses a handwashing station that was set up in Yangon with the local COVID-19 response committee.
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Cleaning the Markets in Yangon’s
Most Crowded Township
Local markets in Hlaingtharya township are being cleaned with liquid bleach. WaterAid Myanmar has provided bleach to the township’s COVID-19 response committee to clean 25 markets, with nine markets already completed since April 27.
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Cleaning in process at one of the local markets in Hlaingtharya Township.
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WORLD WATER DAY
Experts engage in dialogue on water and climate change
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World Water Day has been observed on March 22 since 1993 and draws its focus on the importance of freshwater, its availability and lack thereof. It is a critical occasion, particularly for developing nations where large cohorts of the population live without access to safe water.
In anticipation of World Water Day, WaterAid Myanmar hosted a 'Water and Climate Change' seminar on 17 March 2020. The theme for this year was water and climate change, giving us the opportunity to discuss their interlinkages, and how the use of water itself can help reduce floods, droughts, scarcity and pollution, and ultimately help us in fighting climate change itself. This was also an opportunity for us to think about the adverse effects of climate change (and its link with water) on vulnerable groups, such as women and girls, ethnically marginalized populations and persons with disabilities.
Fifteen experts on water, climate, gender equality, urbanization and community mobilization, from various national level committees, UN agencies, (I)NGOs, CSOs and private sector were present during the seminar.
Participants had a dialogue on current challenges and the possible actions respectively for water and climate change. Many echoed the need to recharge groundwater, reduce water wastage, finance the sector appropriately, and have adequate and appropriate national standards for water management in order to prevent the adverse effects climate change has on vulnerable groups, especially women, children and persons with disabilities in Myanmar's rural and urban areas.
We're hoping this dialogue helps us draw attention of the Government, lawmakers and advocates push the WASH agenda further in order to mitigate the effects of climate change and achieve SDGs by 2030.
A summary of the discussions can be found below. You can also access a full list of the media coverages here.
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Read the full article on the Myanmar Times here.
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COMMUNITY MOBILIZATION
FOR WASH
Updates from our Community-Integrated WASH
Project in Magway Region
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On 7 February, WaterAid Myanmar launched its first community-led integrated WASH project (CIWP) in Myaing Township, Magwe Region. The project is funded by The Charitable Foundation, and aims to improve access to safe drinking water, improved toilets and promote hygiene behaviour change to significantly reduce waterborne diseases in rural communities. To achieve this, the project aims to build new water supply systems with distribution systems, as well as apply water treatment to existing systems in order to provide running water to households. We are also promoting the use of SaTo pan, an innovative model of a pan with a lid that closes automatically after use, reducing the possibility of flies flying in and thus reducing the spread of diseases.
Community members gather for a pipeline planning meeting in Myaing township, Magwe Region. Photo: WaterAid.
Regional Minister for Agriculture, Livestock & Irrigation, Director of Department of Rural Development (DRD), Members of Parliament, Directors of Health and Education departments, representative of UNICEF and communities from 13 villages attended the event. The Minister, MPs and Directors welcomed WA's intervention in the Dry Zone of Myanmar and extended their support. They appreciated the 'integrated township wide approach' of WA to support government in achieving the goal of access of WASH to everyone everywhere.
 Myint Zu Soe, project coordinator for CIWP presents during the project launch ceremony. Photo: WaterAid/ Shresha Karmacharya.
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SUPPORTING SAFER BIRTHS IN MYANMAR
Multiplying impact and training healthcare staff
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The Australian Government - Water for Women funded Supporting Safer Births in Myanmar project started in mid-2018 to integrate WASH and Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) practices in healthcare facilities to ensure that women have safer, more dignified births. The project aims to develop national level policy and guidelines for WASH-IPC in hospitals, including gender-sensitive and inclusive infrastructure.
A 'TEACH-CLEAN' method, adapted from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine was designed to enable nurses in training and supervising cleaning staff on Environmental Hygiene and Cleaning. The ToT took place during the first week of February at the Ayeyarwady Regional Health Department. 15 nurses from five township hospitals, five officials from the Regional Health Department, five senior technical officers and WAMM project participated. Following the ToT, multiplier trainings were conducted at each of the five township hospitals from late February to late March. The nurses who received the ToT trainings were the main facilitators, and the Supporting Safer Births project team members joined all multiplier trainings as co-facilitators and observers. A total of 58 participants from five township hospitals participated in these multiplier trainings. A large number of these participants are general workers and a few of them are dressers and compounders. The TMOs also joined the trainings periodically to encourage the trainers and participants.
TEACH-CLEAN trainings have been found to be very helpful for the general workers, as they now have a better understanding of infection prevention and control at hospitals. This was a first of its kind training for general workers, critical in supporting healthcare staff and motivating them throughout. All five hospital staff have completed their trainings and have begun practicing these methods.
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Photos from the TEACH-CLEAN ToT and multiplier trainings. Photos: WaterAid.
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EACH FOR EQUAL
International Women's Day observed
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International Women’s Day is observed every year on March 8. This year, the theme is ‘Each for Equal’, because an equal world is an enabled world.
WaterAid Myanmar also celebrate this significant day in collaboration with the biggest gender network in Myanmar called Gender Equality Network (GEN). Prior to International Women’s Day (IWD), GEN held a press conference on February 25 to inform the media about IWD 2020 campaign agenda and champion for gender equality award. Su Su Nge, Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) Advisor of WaterAid Myanmar and IWD working group member introduced the history of IWD and what had been done during the day around the globe. WAMM team also observed this significant day at the office with some trivia questions and a small office celebration.
Read more about the IWD press conference organised by GEN here.
 WaterAid Myanmar team pose for photos after an IWD trivia session. Photo: WaterAid.
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AMI CONFERENCE 2020
WAMM sponsors conference on attaining Myanmar's Sustainable Development Goals
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WaterAid Myanmar was the platinum sponsor for the Australia-Myanmar Institute (AMI) Conference 2020 on the progress toward Myanmar’s Sustainable Development Goals The conference focused on Myanmar’s efforts to achieve its SDG objectives, within the framework of the Myanmar Sustaintable Development Plan (MSDP) 2018-30. The conference drew participation from Myanmar’s Government departments, education & business institutions and civil society. The conference also connected WAMM to academia, government and wider sector actors to various streams of research.
WaterAid Myanmar Project Manager for the Supporting Safer Births in Myanmar project, Dr. Min Ko Ko presented his scientific paper that shows the correlation between poor WASH and under-five child mortality in Myanmar. Professor Dr. Than Htut, Senior Advisor of WaterAid Myanmar chaired the water panel.
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Project Manager Dr. Min Ko Ko (l) and Prof. Dr. Than Htut (c), along with Dr. Khin Maung Lwin during the water panel at the AMI conference. Photo: WaterAid/ Munawar Hassan.
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WAMM team at the AMI 2020 conference. Photo: WaterAid.
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FIRST MEDIA FELLOWSHIP TRAININGS A SUCCESS
Reflections on the first media fellowship trainings by Moh Moh Thaw
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In order to raise greater awareness about WASH-related issues in Myanmar, WaterAid Myanmar launched a three-month Media Fellowship Programme in January. Under the programme, WAMM provided WASH knowledge to the journalists and gave them financial support so they could produce high-quality content about WASH topics for their media organisations.
A total of 11 journalists were selected to participate in the programme. The key objectives were to build the capacity of the journalists so they could present an accurate picture of the real situation of WASH in Myanmar in both urban and rural areas, have a positive influence on policy makers, improve public awareness about WASH to encourage positive behaviour change, and promote examples of good WASH solutions.
As part of the fellowship programme, three trainings – a foundation training, an advanced training and a refresher training – were held in January, February and March in Yangon, with all 11 fellows participating. Experts from the WASH and media sectors, including gender and sexuality education experts, led individual sessions during the trainings. A significant portion of the training was also devoted to story development and planning, as all fellows were expected to publish several WASH-related stories on their media platforms.
The training sessions in January provided a very solid knowledge foundation on WASH while the speakers sought to focus in on more specific issues, including sanitation, groundwater use and governance in February’s sessions. The refresher training sessions held in March provided a different topic related to hygiene issues such as menstrual hygiene management and sexual and reproductive health and rights. Surveys conducted during and at the end of the training indicated that the participants found the majority of the training contents useful.
During the three-month programme, WAMM conducted a field trip to Hlaing Tharyar (where thousands of migrants live in informal settlements) in Yangon that was open to all fellows. WAMM encouraged the fellows to also make their own field trips to other parts of the country in order to gather information for their reports. Four fellows made field trips to Magway Region to report on residents who are suffering from water shortages and gather information for their feature articles, and one fellow also travelled to Shan State for her report.
The fellows were very productive during the programme. Collectively they completed nearly 40 articles during the three-month period and several more articles are still in progress and nearing publication. We can already see the positive impact, particularly from Magway Post editor-in-Chief Nay Aung’s article, which prompted the Magway Region government to provide funds to improve the drinking water supply in rural schools. Seeing this kind of impact provided great encouragement to the other fellows and showed them how writing about WASH issues can improve the lives of many people. Read more about this here.
Based on the successful outcome of the training, WAMM is planning to repeat the fellowship programme during 2020 to give more Myanmar journalists the opportunity to tell stories about WASH in Myanmar. You can find a full list of our fellows' reports here.
Media fellows, Country Director and Media Consultant pose for a photo during the refresher training on SRHR. Photo: WaterAid.
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GENDER AND WASH
First GEN WASH working group meeting held
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WAMM organized the first ‘WASH and Gender Working Group Meeting’ at the Gender Equality Network (GEN) Resource Center in Yangon on 23 January 2020. The sub-group discusses and promotes WASH agenda within the womens’ right movement and disabled persons’ programmes, as accessible WASH is everyone’s right; and no one should be left from attaining these basic services.
Forming this sub-group is vital in networking and partnering, as well as building capacity and skills pertaining to WASH, to support gender equality and social inclusion (GESI) on all fronts. 19 members from 16 INGOs, NGOs and local CSOs from Yangon, Pathein, Mandalay and Magway joined the first working group meeting. During this meeting, Ma Su Su Nge, GESI Advisor from WAMM presented the ‘Current Situation of Gender and WASH in Myanmar’ and participants shared their experiences with working on WASH and gender-related issues.
Impacts of access to water on women and girls in rural areas, the importance of people’s awareness on using decent toilets; challenges of girls to have facilities for personal hygiene, and barriers of people with disabilities to access to public WASH services and infrastructure were some of the key topics that were discussed. Challenges in accessing WASH services and possible solutions for women, people with disabilities, female migrant workers, adolescent girls and LGBT in groups were also discussed.
Gender and WASH sub group members during the first working group meeting at the GEN resource center in Yangon. Photo: WaterAid/ Eaint Phu Myint Myat.
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POLICY GAP ANALYSIS
Consultative meeting on developing an
advocacy strategy for WASH and health held
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WaterAid Myanmar is developing an Advocacy Strategy for WASH and Health sector engagement. In this regard, a Consultative Meeting on conducting a 'Policy Gap Analysis' and discussing ideas and suggestions to focus on key WASH & Health Advocacy issues was held in Yangon on Sunday, 26 January 2020. Some of the most renowned policy persons, and ex- and current senior officials of the Ministry of Health and Sports (MoHS), including Member-National Health Policy Committee, Ex Director Generals of MoHS, Directors and Deputy Directors along with WASH & Health professionals from WHO, PATH and Jhpiego participated in the meeting.
WAMM anticipates rich findings and recommendations emanating out of this focussed discussion guiding our future WASH and Health engagement in Myanmar. This will also lead WAMM to continue engagement with this group of WASH & Health sector specialists on various related themes going forward. The workshop was funded under the Australian Government - Water for Women's Supporting Safer Births in Myanmar project.
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Photos from the Policy Gap Analysis consultative meeting on 26 January. Photos: WaterAid.
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WATERAID MYANMAR
IN THE NEWS
Selection of news coverages, interviews, etcetera
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WATCH: Project Manager Dr. Min Ko Ko's interviews on handwashing & Covid-19
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Interview with The Myanmar Times
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Interview with 7Day TV
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WaterAid Myanmar senior advisor Professor Than Htut engaged in a discussion with the 7 Day TV host to promote handwashing practices during and beyond COVID-19. This video is the first episode from a 4-part series. Watch the full video here.
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See more about our work on COVID-19 response:
- COVID 19 Awareness poster
- COVID 19 Awareness video by WAMM
- 7 Day TV COVID 19 awareness program on handwashing
- 2019 Novel Coronavirus awareness (Kachin language): Korona ana makawp hpaji jaw ai lam
- Washing hands properly with soap and water is integral in preventing all kinds of infection poster
- 2019 Novel Coronavirus awareness information in Chin (Hakha) language
- 2019 Novel Coronavirus awareness information in Chin (Hualngo) language
- Handwashing poster
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