About the Water Barrels

At the beginning of March, Project Harar Programme Officers started to implement Covid awareness messaging into their usual outreach activities, such as health extension worker training. Along with awareness messaging, we wanted to provide practical, tangible measures to prevent the spread of Covid-19 into the communities in which we work. 

As we know, regular hand washing is key for preventing the spread of the virus, in rural areas of Ethiopia there is no access to running water, 'ground water' is collected from a communal source such as a well, families in these areas do not have the means to buy an extra water barrel for designated hand washing. Our project involves giving families a large water barrel which is to be used specifically for hand washing along with bars of soap. On average a 40 litre water barrel and five bars of soap costs less than £10, meaning we can deliver these items to a large number of families in a community. 

We have also equipt our associate health clinics with posters with hand washing diagrams and leaflets about the spread of the virus.