|
Sustaining the Environment
African villages and urban neighborhoods face a number of serious environmental challenges, including poor waste management, soil erosion, increasing desertification, and diseases caused by poor public hygiene. Many of our partner communities live in unsanitary physical environments that pose numerous risks to community health.
Tostan's modules on health and hygiene provide villagers with the necessary knowledge and skills to find creative solutions to the environmental problems in their communities. As a result, Tostan community members actively improve their physical environments, including:
-
the establishment of weekly community clean-ups to pick up trash and cut mosquito-harboring grass and bushes;
-
the construction of latrines to prevent the spread of illness and parasites;
-
the building of more fuel-efficient wood-burning stoves, thereby reducing deforestation and desertification caused by excessive wood-collecting. Fuel-efficient stoves also decrease both the amount of smoke inhaled and the number of hours women must spend collecting wood;
-
the construction of walls and covers for wells to keep water safe from mosquito larvae, water-borne diseases, and other contaminants.
|
