Meeting Kiran Ma'am
In our first session with Kiran ma’am we got to know about this project. Ma’am suddenly asked us if we ever got diarrhea. It was weird and it turned out that the whole class had got diarrhea at least once. It was very awkward but then ma’am showed us a video of WASH United. The video showed games designed for children staying in Africa by WASH United which promotes sanitation awareness for the lack of which many children were dying of diarrhea. Kiran ma’am asked us if we wanted to help Wash with this project. We all were very excited until the concept of “all or not at all” was introduced. The whole class was all up for the project but ma’am said that we needed to earn it. As a class, we were lacking team spirit. We had to put our act together and work as a team to grab this opportunity.
Session 2 With Kiran Ma'am
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After a week’s gap we had our second DFC session with Kiran ma’am. During the week we all made a conscious effort to work efficiently together. We were also supposed to maintain a record and see if we ourselves wash our hands. We all did wash our hands but not most of the times and had become better at working as a group but not yet ready to earn the challenge. After that we asked ourselves that we all had diarrhea and the children in Africa also but the difference was that we were alive and the children in Africa were not. This led us to the term shield or immune system. Ma’am conducted an exercise by throwing smiley balls. She threw it hard at one of my classmates and it did hurt but when she threw it with the same force at a bunch of my classmates, it did not hurt. That means that the children in Africa had a weaker immune system compared to all of us which caused death.
One more question occurred that we brush regularly but are not regular with hand washing as we have not formed the habit of washing hands. We formed habits because of our parents nagging us continuously and so we thought of spying on our parents if they wash their hands as our next week’s assignment. We also had to find the difference between bacteria and virus as the other part of our assignment.
One more question occurred that we brush regularly but are not regular with hand washing as we have not formed the habit of washing hands. We formed habits because of our parents nagging us continuously and so we thought of spying on our parents if they wash their hands as our next week’s assignment. We also had to find the difference between bacteria and virus as the other part of our assignment.
Session 3 With Kiran Ma'am
We were officially handed the challenge by Kiran ma'am in session 3. We started of with saying that how the teachers, who were spying on us to see whether we wash our hands or not had seen us washing our hands at most of the times. Working as a group had improved a lot from the day we got the challenge to today. We then later got into a detailed discussion of our findings. We had averaged out the data and this was the result we obtained. We found out that our mom and dad’s were particular about washing the hands in the day, got a little lenient about washing the hands for lunch and were not paying lots of importance to washing hands by the end of the day.
Then we moved on to sharing our bacteria Vs virus research through which we cleared our misconception that diarrhea was caused by a virus. It was that diarrhea was actually a waterborne disease caused by bacteria in our intestines. Now arrived the question: why other than poor immune systems did the children from Africa die but we were still alive. We discussed for a while coming to the conclusion that due to a deprived financial situations, lack of awareness and due to the less access of pure water were the reasons children dying while we were still alive.
Now all the concepts were in place. We had spied on our parents but they were not our users. Our actual users were the children from the slum. So we decided to go and visit the slums and get our observations.
Then we moved on to sharing our bacteria Vs virus research through which we cleared our misconception that diarrhea was caused by a virus. It was that diarrhea was actually a waterborne disease caused by bacteria in our intestines. Now arrived the question: why other than poor immune systems did the children from Africa die but we were still alive. We discussed for a while coming to the conclusion that due to a deprived financial situations, lack of awareness and due to the less access of pure water were the reasons children dying while we were still alive.
Now all the concepts were in place. We had spied on our parents but they were not our users. Our actual users were the children from the slum. So we decided to go and visit the slums and get our observations.
Community Visit
Today we visited the deprived community to get information about sanitation from them as after all they are our target audience. We had planned questions to be asked and how to ask them. But we made a mistake in the way of asking questions. We were asking them the questions directly and not making them comfortable. We were also pushing the camera in their face and so they were answering the right things and not the correct things. We got to know this when we talked to an elderly man who told hand washing is of no use, but when the camera turned to him he told I do wash my hands with soap because everybody washes hands with soaps. Also we found out that the parents were prompting the children to say the correct things but the children were hesitating telling the lies.
So in order to get the right results we became anti hand washing and talked to the people. We also bought biscuits and some chips packets and in a friendly conversation offered it to the children. We wanted to check whether they wash their hands or even think about it before eating or do they just start eating. We found out that they just started eating. We also observed that the children were playing:
Cricket, hopscotch, tag game and clapping games (girls). We also saw that they played in with sand, muddy water and in a Rickshaw.
These were our observations from the community visit.
So in order to get the right results we became anti hand washing and talked to the people. We also bought biscuits and some chips packets and in a friendly conversation offered it to the children. We wanted to check whether they wash their hands or even think about it before eating or do they just start eating. We found out that they just started eating. We also observed that the children were playing:
Cricket, hopscotch, tag game and clapping games (girls). We also saw that they played in with sand, muddy water and in a Rickshaw.
These were our observations from the community visit.
Session 4 With Kiran Ma'am
Yesterday, grade 8 did not have any food from 9.30 to 2.30 as we had back to back sessions. We started feeling very hungry and started to whine and grump, feeling angrier and angrier every minute after lunch. Then suddenly at 2:30 Kiran ma’am told everyone in grade 8 to come down and have cake. It was a surprise for us but we were delighted because after 5 hours we were about to eat. Most of us didn’t even think of washing our hands and started eating and enjoying the cake. Then Kiran maam told us that just in five hours you forget to wash hands before eating, think about the children from the community who might not get to eat food for a whole day. Were they going to be bothered about washing their hands before eating or just gnawing the food?
Then we also understood why washing hands was not a priority for them. It was because they were very hungry and so would just gnaw the food without thinking of washing hands. The second reason was not availability of enough water to them. We realized that they had only 2 buckets of 15 liters each which they had to use for everything: Washing clothes and vessels, bathing, drinking, cooking and also washing hands! They had to do everything from those 30 liters of water. So we decided that our games, the final product should be independent of water.
We also met an expert: Ms. Phoram Desai. She was the leader of Keystage 1 in our school. She told us how rewards and punishments and role models work best to make children do something. Keeping all of this in mind we will move to the next step: the IMAGINE.
Then we also understood why washing hands was not a priority for them. It was because they were very hungry and so would just gnaw the food without thinking of washing hands. The second reason was not availability of enough water to them. We realized that they had only 2 buckets of 15 liters each which they had to use for everything: Washing clothes and vessels, bathing, drinking, cooking and also washing hands! They had to do everything from those 30 liters of water. So we decided that our games, the final product should be independent of water.
We also met an expert: Ms. Phoram Desai. She was the leader of Keystage 1 in our school. She told us how rewards and punishments and role models work best to make children do something. Keeping all of this in mind we will move to the next step: the IMAGINE.
Wrapping Up the FEEL
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Till now we have finished the feel stage of this project.
We first got to know about our clients WASH United. WASH United is an organization that tries to stop sanitation diseases through games and positive messaging. We then researched about what diarrhea is in detail- What is it, the causes, different types of diarrhea and prevention's/cure. We also got our stats in place like, how many people in the world, India and Africa die every year. We saw why Africa is the main victim of diarrhea and why USA the least. After that we researched on bacteria and virus, which are the main things involved in diarrhea. We understood diarrhea is caused by bacteria and it affects our small intestine.
Then we kept a record of our hand washing and also saw if our parents wash their hands. We found out that in the starting of the day which is the breakfast they were particular about washing their hands but by the end of the day our parents got lenient about washing their hands. We also saw if our parents pester us for washing hands the same way they do for brushing and changing into night suit. It was not the same. Our parents gave more importance to changing into our night suit and brushing rather than washing hands.
After that we had a community visit to observe the people who live in a community, to see what their habits are as they are our users. We questioned and observed. We realized that the problem was scarcity of water and now that is an obstacle.
We also understood why washing hands was not a priority for them through the cake experience. It was because they were very hungry and so would just gnaw the food without thinking of washing hands. The second reason was not availability of enough water to them. We realized that they had only 2 buckets of 15 liters each which they had to use for everything: Washing clothes and vessels, bathing, drinking, cooking and also washing hands! They had to do everything from those 30 liters of water.
We first got to know about our clients WASH United. WASH United is an organization that tries to stop sanitation diseases through games and positive messaging. We then researched about what diarrhea is in detail- What is it, the causes, different types of diarrhea and prevention's/cure. We also got our stats in place like, how many people in the world, India and Africa die every year. We saw why Africa is the main victim of diarrhea and why USA the least. After that we researched on bacteria and virus, which are the main things involved in diarrhea. We understood diarrhea is caused by bacteria and it affects our small intestine.
Then we kept a record of our hand washing and also saw if our parents wash their hands. We found out that in the starting of the day which is the breakfast they were particular about washing their hands but by the end of the day our parents got lenient about washing their hands. We also saw if our parents pester us for washing hands the same way they do for brushing and changing into night suit. It was not the same. Our parents gave more importance to changing into our night suit and brushing rather than washing hands.
After that we had a community visit to observe the people who live in a community, to see what their habits are as they are our users. We questioned and observed. We realized that the problem was scarcity of water and now that is an obstacle.
We also understood why washing hands was not a priority for them through the cake experience. It was because they were very hungry and so would just gnaw the food without thinking of washing hands. The second reason was not availability of enough water to them. We realized that they had only 2 buckets of 15 liters each which they had to use for everything: Washing clothes and vessels, bathing, drinking, cooking and also washing hands! They had to do everything from those 30 liters of water.