{"id":1723,"date":"2019-11-11T14:33:02","date_gmt":"2019-11-11T13:33:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.smartcentremalawi.com\/?p=1723"},"modified":"2020-03-11T09:23:50","modified_gmt":"2020-03-11T08:23:50","slug":"faith-and-water-training-rural-communities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smartcentremalawi.com\/index.php\/2019\/11\/11\/faith-and-water-training-rural-communities\/","title":{"rendered":"Faith and Water: training rural communities"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Spreading awareness by training rural Malawi the importance of WASH.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

One of our longest running projects is our Faith and Water training. It fits perfectly within our organization, as it is focused on rural Malawi and consist of giving training to local people. First piloted in 2017, our staff members are getting better at making these trainings a success. That\u2019s why, when funding became available to the Centre for training purposes, the choice to continue with Faith and Water sessions was quickly made. This time we went to four regions, visiting two communities in each.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Focussing on WASH<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Faith\nand Water trainings are focused on clean and safe water, sanitation, and\nhygiene; WASH in short. The benefits are explained to local church in their\nlocal language. With help of games, visual aspects and case studies, it is for\nexample explained how bacteria spreads, or how a water filter can prevent\ndiseases. For instance: to give them a better perspective on contaminated water,\nwe show two bottles filled with water. To one, salt is added. Both look\nidentical, but after a taste test the difference between the two are made\nclear. This goes to show contaminated water can look as clear as any water, but\nmay still be filled with bacteria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Linking WASH to Bible verses<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

We\nemphasize the training is not a lecture, but a dialogue. As this training is\nprovided to church leaders and their congregations, we link safe and clean\nwater and sanitation to verses from the Bible. In many verses, God teaches the\nbenefits that come with taking proper care of yourself. This way, we try to get\nthe people following the training involved and enthusiastic about sharing their\nknowledge to their communities after the training is finished. After some time,\nwe do a follow-up visit to see how things are going and whether the techniques\nthey learned during our training are still being used, and whether knowledge\nhas been shared with community members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n