World Vision Ghana is collaborating with the Asutifi North District Assembly to initiate Community-led Total Sanitation (CLTS) approach in 12 new communities. The goal is to enable members of these communities to understand the dangers of open defecation and inspire them to construct and use household latrines. The CLTS approach ignites a sense of shame and disgust among communities when people realize that they are “eating” one another’s faces. These realizations will inspire and culminate in a collective action to end open defecation and improve sanitation by encouraging individuals to construct their toilets.
During the pre-triggering and triggering activities, the partners collected baseline data on sanitation in the new communities, and this information will help to track progress in sanitation coverage overtime.
In a similar development, World Vision Ghana and the District Assembly are monitoring the uptake and use of household latrines in 21 communities that had earlier benefitted from the CLTS approach. So far, 40 households in these 21 communities have dug their pits, while 23 have already completed their latrines.
The partners have identified and trained Natural Leaders in all CLTS communities to continue to inspire people about the benefits of ending open defecation and the need for switching to household latrines.