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Hygiene promotion, song and dance in Haiti

By Guest
May 24, 2010 at 11:06 am

Liz Brunwin works in first aid education and was delegated to Haiti to work with the British Red Cross mass sanitation team

It’s my first time out with the hygiene promotion team and I’m in La Piste camp for the morning. As I do the support role for the mass sanitation team, my day is usually spent in the office tent working on the finances and administration side so it feels really good to be out.

It’s 11.00 and the sun is fierce. But that doesn’t stop people gathering as soon as the first beats start pounding out from the sound system. The three clowns take their position on top of the truck and off it goes, winding slowly and loudly down the lanes of La Piste with its infectious repetitive beat. It’s difficult to take your eyes off the three clowns who are busy shaking, gyrating and strutting their way up and down on top of the truck, cutting an impressive image against the blue sky.

Immediately kids of all ages, teenagers, and adults all emerge from their closely packed shelters and start dancing, singing and swaggering alongside the truck. More and more people emerge until over a hundred people are following along. Over the music the MC is working the crowd, encouraging people to join us and putting across a few key hygiene promotion messages. Lots of kids trail the truck all the way as it makes its way up and down the lanes of one area of La Piste and finally back to British Red Cross’s Hygiene Promotion tent which is at the corner of the camp.

The sound truck parks up and people gather around the cleared space which serves as a stage for the rest of the morning’s activities. A couple of hundred people line up behind the temporary square barriers, little kids at the front, people at the back straining to see the action.

What happens next can only be described as a good old ‘dance off’. Volunteers from the audience – a young girl and then a couple of teenage boys – each proudly take a turn at being centre stage, wiggling and shaking with the crowd whooping and shouting along. Each is rewarded with a bar of soap for their efforts. Two or three of the hygiene promoters from the Haitian Red Cross then take their turns.

I’m enjoying the performance, watching quietly from the side lines, but to my surprise I suddenly hear the MC shout out for “Miss Liz” to take a turn. As it’s my first time in La Piste I’m being invited up! My initial attempt to decline politely falls on deaf ears and suddenly I’m on my feet, dragging Borry the British Red Cross Hygiene Promoter along with me. We make a joint attempt to ‘get down’ but it feels in comparison a pretty tame and awkward British style of dancing! The crowd were spared very much of this though, as we quickly stepped aside for the main event to begin.

The hygiene promotion team perform a humorous play addressing issues of good hygiene practice and the importance of hand washing and then the clowns go on to demonstrate through comedy sketches ‘how to’ and ‘how not to’ use a squat latrine. This includes things like not to put rubbish down the latrines, how to wash your hands after use etc. All this is interspersed with regular periods of music where the whole crowd dances along.

It’s clear that hygiene promotion issues are not the easiest subject to address, but woven within the relaxed atmosphere it’s easy to see how people are now warmed up to make them more receptive to hear some key messages. People are gathered simply to enjoy the music, watch the dancing and soak up the mood and it’s great to give them an opportunity to do that. It’s also great that they get to hear some important messages whilst they do!

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Tags: la piste, water and sanitation

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This entry was posted on Monday, May 24th, 2010 at 11:06 am and is filed under Health and social care, International. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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