We are celebrating - Traditional Authority (TA) Kabudula, which consists of 1300 villages, is ODF! On 18th October 2019, TA Kabudula in Malawi was officially declared ODF by the National Sanitation and Hygiene Technical Committee.
What is ODF and why are we celebrating it? ODF means “Open Defecation Free”.
Poor sanitation is a significant cause of death, disease and disability in the world, especially in developing countries. According to the World Health Organization, unsafe water, and poor sanitation and hygiene kill about 1.7 million people every year. Open defecation is when people empty their bowels out in the open instead of in a closed and controlled structure like a toilet. Open defecation contaminates water systems, which are sources of drinking water. And flies can also transmit bacteria onto food and drink. It is believed that poor sanitation alone is the main cause of over 400,000 deaths each and every year.
As an implementing partner for a Management Sciences for Health (MSH) project, CPAR is combatting these stats by empowering communities through the use of Community-Led Total Sanitation, an approach that mobilizes communities to appraise their poor sanitation practices, such as open defecation, and to take action. Our program accelerates latrine coverage, improves sanitation practices and water access, and encourages schools and communities to become open-defecation free.
CPAR has been implementing programs in Malawi since 1992 and CPAR Malawi is the only organization in Malawi to have achieved the Open Defecation Free (ODF) Level 2 status, the highest level of achievement in WASH interventions in Malawi. This was achieved in Kasungu in Traditional Authority (TA) Chilowamatambe in 2018 on a project we implemented for UNICEF.