The Latrine Training Mat Sample Clauses

The Latrine Training Mat. ‌ In response to this perceived need to better facilitate latrine use among young children, the WASH Benefits team began developing the latrine training mat, a small, lightweight slab with a key-shaped hole appropriately sized for a child. This training mat could be placed over a latrine’s existing hole for a small child to use, and would make using a latrine a safer, less threatening, and more sanitary activity for young children. Made of wood or plastic, the training mat could be cleaned with a few rinses of water directly into the latrine hole, and could then be stored inside the latrine until its next use. This simple concept seemed to have potentially significant implications for improving sanitation within the household. First, it could promote latrine use among young children by presenting an easy alternative to using potties or defecating outside. Second, it could help mothers more safely dispose of their children’s feces, eliminating the need for direct contact. Third, the latrine training mat would allow children to use the latrine while still keeping it clean for the rest of the family to use. Finally, the latrine training mat could easily be incorporated into the family’s existing toilet-training strategies and could more effectively promote exclusive latrine use among children as they get older. WASH-Benefits created a basic prototype for the latrine training mat, and conducted a small-scale pilot of the mats in four households – each containing one or more children under the age of five – in the Siaya district of Kenya’s Western province. The mats were delivered in the summer of 2010, and structured follow-up discussions with the mothers of each household were held a few months later in the fall. The qualitative data generated from these discussions strongly suggested that this tool had potential to facilitate latrine use among young children who might otherwise be considered too young to use the family latrine. This warranted further development of the tool, as well as research into its effectiveness and feasibility within this context. Consequently, during the summer of 2011 a qualitative research study was conducted in a neighboring district of Western Kenya, in which three versions of the Latrine Training Mat were developed and subsequently delivered to twelve households that had children between the ages of two to five years old. This paper focuses on the results of this 2011 study, and discusses its implications for further development ...