Ebute Ilaje is a riverine slum community in Bariga, Lagos with poor access to Water sanitation and hygiene. It’s a community built on heaps of refuse and surrounded by water that is unsafe for drinking. The five young leaders set out to carry out a health intervention in Ebute Ilaje community, water however, seemed to be the least of their worries.
A stakeholders meeting was done with key and important vested parties in the community that voiced out the problems of the community. Access to potable water and sanitation were the major issues highlighted by the community leaders.
In order to have a sustainable project the information and knowledge needed to be in the community and to achieve these twenty WASH champions were trained on WASH with an integration of Maternal and child health. The two-day training offered courses on Water, Sanitation and Hygiene, water purification methods and implication of WASH to maternal, sexual, reproductive health with a focus on menstrual hygiene, gender and HIV/AIDS.
The project was marked in the community with a celebration of World water day on the 22nd of March to bring an awareness of WASH into the community. The celebration started with environmental sanitation in the community led by the WASH champions, an awareness walk, education of primary school pupils on the importance of hand washing to their health and a health education for the larger community. During the health education the community members were taught the Importance of WASH especially for women, girls and children.
All was done with seed funding from the US consulate, Lagos and support from Water Aid Nigeria, HACEY Health Initiative, DMT toilets, Neo childcare, Reprolife and The Nigerian Child Initiative.
The Carrington Youth Fellowship Initiative, CYFI is a dynamic youth-based initiative launched by the U.S. consulate, Lagos. CYFI brings together Nigerian youth of exceptional vision, skills, and experiences, to design and implement projects that have a positive impact on Nigerian society.
The CYFI health team 2018/2019 is made up of 5 young fellows; Olajumoke Adebayo, Mary
Adeoye, Elizabeth Williams, Emmanuel Oshinaike and Dr. Yusuf Shittu.