“I am even more eager now to help my community realize the importance of good sanitation and healthy living.”

Oce Nabunome lives in Enonabuasa village, West Timor, at the far southeast end of the Indonesian archipelago. She has been a Health Post (Posyandu) worker (cadre) for six years. She cares a lot about community health and sanitation: she notes that when she first started as a Posyandu cadre there were still many families who were practicing open defecation or only had unsanitary latrines. That is, they did not have proper septic tanks and most of the time they were open, or only partially covered with corrugated iron sheets. As a result the neighborhood often smelled of urine and feces, there were a lot of flies, and many children suffered from diarrhea.   

Since becoming a Posyandu cadre, Oce has been determined to motivate her community to stop open defecation and build proper latrines. She has campaigned to improve awareness about the benefits of improved sanitation. In particular she is sharing information with mothers who join Posyandu activities.  

Recently, with CWS support, all cadres and community members in Enonabuasa, including Oce, learned about Community-Led Total Sanitation. CWS uses this model in several countries in Asia to assist communities as they increase the usage of sanitary latrines. According to Oce, “This information-sharing has really improved my knowledge; we learned not only about basic sanitation, but also about proper hand-washing with soap, food handling safety and household waste management. I am even more eager now to help my community realize the importance of good sanitation and healthy living. Since the training I have succeeded in encouraging three families to build proper latrines. I will keep motivating the other families in the village to follow in these families’ footsteps to build healthy latrines.”