WaterAid Bangladesh \u2014 achieving sustainable environmental health<\/p>\n
WaterAid Bangladesh (WAB) has been working in Bangladesh implementing water, sanitation and hygiene
\npromotion activities since 1986. In 2004 WAB started a 5-year DFID funded project called \u2018Achieving
\nSustainable Environmental Health\u2019 (ASEH) which aimed at reaching the poorest, geographically excluded
\npeople living in hydro-geologically difficult areas of the country. In little over 5 years the project has
\nreached nearly 6million beneficiaries with safe and sustainable water, sanitation and hygiene promotional
\nactivities in both urban and rural areas. During the implementation of ASEH it became evident that certain
\npopulations were unintentionally being excluded from the project \u2013 people with disabilities were one of
\nthese groups (others include sex workers, tea workers, street sweepers, floating people). The standard
\nmodels used by front line staff and engineers in awareness raising, building capacity, hygiene promotion and
\nin the choice and installation of technologies were not addressing the specific needs of people with
\ndisabilities. Social stigmas and access difficulties meant that they were not present in meetings, CBOs or
\nhygiene promotional sessions. Technologies chosen by the communities\/households most of the time did not
\ntake into account the specific requirements of those with disabilities. In addition many other people such as
\nthe elderly, pregnant women, the sick and injured faced problems in accessing and using water and
\nsanitation facilities and as a result returned to unsafe practices.
\nThis paper concentrates on the barriers faced by people with disabilities in Bangladesh and how through
\nWaterAid Bangladesh\u2019s recent pilot project these barriers are being broken.<\/p>\n
Disability and poverty
\nIt is recognised by many (DFID 2000, UNESCO 1995) that poor nutrition, dangerous living and working
\nconditions, limited access to health care and education, poor hygiene and bad sanitation are some of the
\ncauses of disability. Sadly, these are also some of the conditions which are exacerbated by disabilities and
\nwhich ensure that people with disabilities are usually the poorest, have low literacy rates, poor health and
\nhave poor access to services. Poor access to education, health care and employment, lead to social and
\neconomic exclusion \u2013 resulting in lack of opportunities to participate in community activities and decision
\nmaking, families and difficulties in generating income and increasing the workload on caretakers.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WaterAid Bangladesh (WAB) has been working in Bangladesh implementing water, sanitation and hygiene
\npromotion activities since 1986. In 2004 WAB started a 5-year DFID funded project called \u2018Achieving
\nSustainable Environmental Health\u2019 (ASEH) which aimed at reaching the poorest, geographically excluded
\npeople living in hydro-geologically difficult areas of the country.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1515,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoh.hasinjahan.me\/bn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1514","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoh.hasinjahan.me\/bn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoh.hasinjahan.me\/bn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoh.hasinjahan.me\/bn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoh.hasinjahan.me\/bn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1514"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hoh.hasinjahan.me\/bn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1514\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1516,"href":"https:\/\/hoh.hasinjahan.me\/bn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1514\/revisions\/1516"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoh.hasinjahan.me\/bn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoh.hasinjahan.me\/bn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoh.hasinjahan.me\/bn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoh.hasinjahan.me\/bn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}