"The Bethany Project"
Research: Helminth Diseases
& Household Sanitation Practices
A capstone (thesis) project that began as an academic study but grew to be so much more. The support for Bethany Stutzman, a nursing doctoral student, and her final project was overwhelming and encouraging. The academic study is over and was a success. Happily, the positive repercussions continue. To date we've distributed roughly 100 household water filters in the small Piton area along with education on best practices in sanitation. Our team continues to follow up with the families. In the future there will be more household sanitation support as well as water supply improvement for the village as a whole. Thank you so much to the supporters of this project!
Below you can see an excerpt of the 2016 Loyola University Provost's Report that features our project and Bethany's work. Aid to Infrastructure gets a mention because she did her work through us and we provided the photos.
Summer 2015
Aid to Infrastructure is very pleased to be a part of a 4-month research project regarding helminth diseases and water/personal sanitation practices. Our good friend Bethany Stutzman is a doctoral candidate in nursing and chose Piton as the backdrop for her final capstone (thesis) project. It's an honor to be a part of this academic project and research because this is the type work and progress ATI wants to facilitate. It's also exciting because when Bethany approached me about doing this, her questions and focus were exactly the topics that we at ATI had just begun discussing as next steps: community water purification, improved latrine (bathroom) facilities, hand washing stations, and options for household water purification along with extended education on personal hygiene practices. In our initial discussions, she hit on every one of these things along with how important it is to implement any changes or education through empowerment of the community leaders, removing as much attention as possible from us. Our goals and philosophy were perfectly in sync. It's just another example of God's oh so perfect timing.
ATI and the community of Piton are excited to be a part of Bethany's project because it's a great way to begin a long process of change and education in this area - directed by the community's response. The community and leaders are aware this is an academic project and understand that honest feedback is essential, even if that feedback is negative! Negative feedback just signals to us to try another solution to find the right one for this community. So far in our work in Piton, we've enjoyed a great interactive and honest working relationship and have seen the same with this project.
The project began concurrent with our medical clinic in July. Bethany came prepared to work with Piton's community leaders and our translators for two things:
1) providing an educational seminar to the general public present at our medical clinic that focused on the importance of improved personal hygiene practices, and
2) working with 25 pre-chosen households to answer an extensive questionnaire on their personal hygiene practices as a family unit. Additionally, each household received a bucket and ceramic filter. Over the course of the next few months, those families will receive a follow up visit to see if the filters are being used as intended or if the filters aren't practical for their daily lives.
Depending on the response between now and October, and we expect it to be a positive one; we will conduct more sanitation seminars and distribute more household filters. The hope is to improve the household sanitation practices of every family in the community of Piton. This will take time and consideration of their feedback.
Separate but related to this project, ATI will be considering ways to improve the water collection and sanitation system for the community as a whole, located at the Piton school. Improving these aspects of daily life will greatly improve the general health of the community. Bethany's project is the perfect starting point because it engages the community and we can all move forward according to their feedback and ownership of their own individual and corporate health practices.
