*DISCLAIMER*. This blog entry talks about water and sanitation issues-it's not pretty-so please accept my apology now if you are offended by the use of the word "poo".
WASH. Water/Sanitation/Health. The three sides of the "WASH Triangle". You can't discuss one without the other and all three impact each other. I don't need to tell you the number of people (I will-but in a future blog entry) that die each year, month and day from WASH related diseases-trust me it's a lot. We throw around words such as poo, dysentery, dehydration, open defecation, gardia, cholera and other diseases and their impacts-but have any of you really suffered from these? I can say that I, along with many of our staff, (you know who you are...) have suffered from gardia-and it was so not pretty!!
I have had the privilege of working in the WASH sector for 12 years. It has been very rewarding at times- at times a lot of hard work! I have seen people drinking from open dirty wells, people defecating in the same streams they collect drinking water from, people with no safe access to proper sanitation and people who have lost children due to both of these issues. I have spent the majority of my adult life learning and working in WASH. I go ballistic when my kids don't wash their hands after going to the bathroom! Like I said in my first blog entry, WASH is very near and dear to me.
I hope to introduce you to some of the people suffering with WASH issues through this blog in the future. This is the other program I am running for - to raise awareness and support for the WASH programs that we, here in Liberia, are undertaking-it really is a matter of life and death.
Marathon training-mileage has 'jacked up' this weekend-7 miles yesterday and 8 today. Yesterday was cloudy but very, very muggy. Today was sunny and cooler-well, until the sun was completely up and then it was zadonkulously (beyond ridiculous :) hot. However, after my run I was able to go to a proper bathroom (trust me I really needed to go!) and drink a nice cold glass of water-I couldn't help but be so thankful.
http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/spuk
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