Youth WASH Concern Workshop- VII series

Youth WASH Concern Workshop- VII series

Two days Youth WASH Concern workshop (WCW) was successfully conducted on 21^st and 22^nd December 2013 organized by Paschim Paaila and ENPHO at Thames College. There were 22 youth participants from different college of Kathmandu valley. The overall objective of the WCW is to enhance the knowledge of WASH and disaster, to empower the capacities, motivate among youth and to boost the leadership capacities among the youth.

The program was coordinated by Mr. Roshan Chaulagain. The facilitators for the whole WCW were Mr. Bipin Dangol, Program Manager ENPHO on “Water management” and Mr. Raman Nepali Activist on “WASH youth leadership”, Mr. Phurba Sange Moktan, District WASH Coordinator UN-HABITAT on “Sanitation Commons and Triggering”, Ms. Kamala KC, Executive Board member PP on “Health and hygiene and Behavior change communication”, Ms. Merina Shakya, Project Officer ENPHO on WASH on Disaster, Mr. Buddha Bajracharya, Network coordinator on “Water and health”.

Two days workshop highlighted many aspects of WASH such as participants were able to know detail knowledge about food hygiene and menstrual hygiene as well. The session were conducted through various tools and techniques such as PowerPoint presentations, audio visuals, different group works, sharing of the cases, games, demonstration etc. during the sessions all the participants had active and energetic participation. At the end of the all session there were group work to collect the feedback and to develop WASH action project which participants committed to complete in near future with the technical support of Paschim Paaila.

"Food Hygiene Practice in Nepal; an Experience from Formative Research" WASH Forum 25th Series

WASH Forum 25^th series was conducted at ENPHO hall on 30^th August 2013 on topic "Food Hygiene Practice In Nepal; An Experience from Formative Research" with an objective is to share the knowledge and experience of formative research on food hygiene; and analyze critically on issues of food hygiene and its practices in Nepal.                  

Mr. Om Prasad Gautam, Public Health Expert of Nepal, Principal Investigator (PI) and from London school of hygiene and tropical medicine (LSHTM) was the key speaker for Discussion forum with 35 energetic youths from Public health, Environment science and Social science sector. Mr. Gautam shared his knowledge and experience regarding the interventional research recently being implemented at Baluwa and Naya Gaun VDC of Kavre District among the mothers having children's between 6 month and under 5 years. Mr. Gautam highlighted the importance of Food hygiene in all levels, especially for children's.  He motivated the youths to spread awareness of Food hygiene as it is one of the most important health issues in the present scenario in our country.

Mr. Gautam said that "changing behavior is very hard .It depends on the nature of setting. The old methods of raising awareness are not suitable, the approach and Setting should be known before implementation." Formative research on food hygiene matters as diarrhea is still 2^nd largest killing disease which is directly linked with food hygiene. He told the new idea for awareness.

In his slides he included the factors contributing for foodborne infection the previous and present changes in food hygiene handling practices of mothers after the interventional research and implementation of behavior changing approaches. The whole session was very much interactive and informative; the youth got to learn many new approaches and information. There was also shown short video regarding the critical times where mothers neglected the proper Hygiene Practices. He also introduced how the behavior of people can be changed in effective way.

Mainly question rose about the formative research regarding sustainabily, effect of education on food hygiene. He replied that it would be implemented in 4 district of Nepal. If it becomes effective then it would be implemented in other places. VDC, FCHVs will contribute in it. He told that Behavior of people affect in food hygiene. Which should be changed and they should be motivated to be ideal mother. 

The programme was then concluded by one of the supportive Paaila Ms. Susmita Paudel former Advocacy Coordinator. Overall program was facilitated by Mr. Roshan Chaulagain and the program was ended with group photo and interaction with participants.

 

Consumer health at risk

 Consumer health at risk

Mr.Yogendra Dhungel, Food Technologist at the Department of Food Technology and Quality Control explained that food safety is interlinked with the human health; further food hygiene is all about maintaining safety and hygiene in the food chain. Speaking at the WASH Forum monthly series organized by Paschim Paaila jointly with Environment and Public Health Organisation (ENPHO) to mark the World Health day with the topic “WASH in Relation to Food Hygiene and Public Health” on 26^th April, Mr. Dhungel highlighted that access to safe water is a critical issue so it is obvious that consumers are vulnerable in respect to food hygiene and also pointed out that hygiene and safety monitoring system in Nepal is not very efficient. “We are still guided by Food Act 2023 BS which is out dated. Therefore the consumers’ health is at risk”, he added.

Linking Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), food and public health, he described that water borne diseases, food borne diseases and low productivity are the main threats for public health. Dhungel opined that 4 per cent of the human diseases could be prevented by improved sanitation and hygiene.

There should not be any excuses in maintaining the food hygiene. About the query on when to maintain the food hygiene he simply answered “ALWAYS”. He explained five keys steps to maintain food hygiene;

i)        Maintain cleanliness at personal level, keep cooking utensils clean and maintain safe sanitary environment in food preparation

ii)                   Cook thoroughly

iii)                 Separate cooked food and uncooked food

iv)                 Storage at safe temperature and

v)                  Use of safe raw materials and safe water.

Participants interacted more during the questions answer session with Mr. Dhungel where he shared his experiences about the organic food hype and the misconceptions on the junk food products. He also touched upon the legal definition of the drinking water and how the water industries have been fooling the general public about its standard.

Altogether 36 participants from different institutions; Nobel college, Golden Gate Int’l College, School of Environmental Science and Management (SchEMS), Asian College of Advance Studies (ACAS), Khwopa College, Padma Kanya Campus, Tri-Chandra Campus, National Health Sciences, National Open College and Lalitpur Valley College (LVC) attended the program with great interest and enthusiasm.

Ms. Merina Shakya, the network coordinator of Paschim Paaila thanked Mr. Dhungel for his innovative sharing on interrelationship between WASH and Food hygiene handing over the token of love. The forum ended with a group photo session.