Young mother Josiane demonstrates hygiene practices. © CARE / Loetitia Raymond.Rural Benin - a group of women wearing tied cloths in bright colours wait for today’s CARE distribution. Josiane Hounsou, a young mother of 30, is amongst them.
Josiane is waiting for water purification tablets, soap, mats and sheets. This essential hygiene pack will allow her and her children to drink clean water and sleep off the ground for the first time in a month.
Early this morning she took a local canoe from Kodonou, the flooded village where she lives, to collect this basic equipment. These boats are the only transportation linking affected villages.
When asked for a volunteer to show the others how to use the products Josiane steps forward and looks at the group with confidence. Every distribution comes with an awareness-raising session about hygiene and reducing the risks of contamination.
The women are attentive and laughing. Happiness is palpable. A feeling that Josiane has lacked since flooding devastated her village.
The floods took most of her possessions. She has almost nothing left. “My husband and I had food set aside for.. (the rainy season), everything was lost,” she explains.
Her first priority was to find shelter out of the water’s reach and food for her family. There isn’t enough for the children to eat.
Josaine’s family is often only able to have one meal a day, sometimes two. Buying soap and products to make water drinkable is out of the question. Josiane is conscious of the danger. “I know we shouldn’t drink the water that surrounds us, but what choice have we got?”
The water used by these flooded communities is full of potential contamination. The water where animals died and people relieve themselves is used for drinking, washing and cooking.
There is a real threat of water-borne diseases: “the water is cloudy, the children are ill, they have diarrhoea, fever and I don’t have money to take them to the heath centre,” the young woman explains. Even if she did most centres are closed, occupied by displaced people.
The hygiene kit presents an opportunity for Josaine and other villagers to reclaim some basic necessities for their families. “I never could have bought these things... This will help me be calmer, a bit more secure, sleeping on a mat will give us a bit more comfort. The children won’t be as ill now that they have clean water.”
