Rufiah used to have nothing to be proud of Gayam village, Probolinggo City, East Java. In her village, there were 94 families living in dirty areas between rice fields and fishponds. Unfortunately, 76 families or 81% of those had no access to proper sanitation or toilets with septic tanks.
Meanwhile, there was only one public toilet, and it was already broken. Gayam villagers’ water was also contaminated by cattle pens which were located too close to water sources as well as five “helicopter” toilets – makeshifts toilets on river side. Trash was also scattered across the village.
The story changed when the Health Office of Probolinggo City and USAID IUWASH PLUS started to promote safe sanitation and trigger the villagers to change their behaviors. Rufiah, as the Chief of RT 4 of RW 1 in the village, along with her neighbors, learned about the knowledge and skills to push for improvement of water and sanitation access and hygiene behaviors of the community. They were also introduced to sanitarians of health community center (Puskesmas) and other stakeholders.
Then, they established a participatory monitoring and evaluation (monev) team to track the progress of their collective efforts. Rufiah is one of the team members. The participatory monev team and villagers of Gayam formulated a community work plan for improvement of water, sanitation, and hygiene. The team also lobbied other stakeholders to support the provision of community water and sanitation access.
The process to improve Gayam was not easy. The participatory monev team must face various challenges. Gayam villagers even often underestimated Rufiah and her colleagues.
“Yet, after Puskesmas sanitarians and us explained about the dangers of feces for health, particularly children’s cognitive and physical growth and development, they slowly accept and start to change,” said Rufiah.
Thanks to the efforts of the participatory monev team, in 2017 the Gayam Village has succeeded in their application for communal wastewater management facility to the Probolinggo Office of Public Works and Housing. From 76 families who initially had no access to improved sanitation, 75 of those managed to secure access to improved sanitation at the end of the USAID IUWASH PLUS program. Meanwhile, there is no more helicopter toilets at the riverside and scattered trashes, while the cattle pen are now more organized and have been moved away from water sources.
In 2019, Gayam received fruit trees from the Office of Environment and garbage cart from KOTAKU. Furthermore, in 2020 they received pumps and hose equipments to support the maintenance of the communal wastewater facility.
“We became even prouder when in 2019 Gayam Village was appointed as Probolinggo City representative for the Climate Village Program (Proklim) competition on provincial and national level. In addition, several members of Gayam Village participatory monev team were asked by Probolinggo City officials to be members of the Tourism Awareness Group (Pokdarwis) in charge of the Permata Pilang beach,” she said. “Our village name, which was unheard by officials of Probolinggo City, now is known as a model village. But most importantly, the community’s mindset on health has significantly improved.”