Project SHINE (Sanitation and Hygiene INnovation in Education): a school and community-based project to improve water, sanitation and hygiene in Vellore/ rural India
The intervention focuses on participatory science and social entrepreneurship in a school setting.
Project SHINE (Sanitation and Hygiene INnovation in Education) is an intervention designed to improve sanitation and hygiene practices through the application of culturally appropriate strategies that utilize the community and students in the development of strategies to improve health.
Objectives
The main objectives of the project are to:
(1) Identify facilitators and barriers of WASH-associated behaviors in order to reduce diarrheal disease among students in Vellore, India;
(2) Assess knowledge, attitudes and practices associated with WASH behaviors among students;
(3) Engage students in the development of sanitation and hygiene prototypes and health promotion strategies to reduce reports of diarrheal in their respective communities, and
(4) Work with students and community members in order to sustain health promotion strategies developed by students during the SHINE school-based intervention and social enterprises that focus on improving health.
Background
Sanitation and hygiene are major public health concerns among communities throughout India. More than half of India’s population defecates in the open, which has significant effects on water quality and children who are at risk for diarrheal disease.
[1]. Diarrheal disease can also reduce resistance to other infections and impair growth [2]. Given these challenges, solutions that incorporate the country’s unique social, cultural and environmental context are urgently needed.
[3]. Project SHINE (Sanitation and Hygiene INnovation in Education) is an intervention designed to improve sanitation and hygiene practices through the application of culturally appropriate strategies that engage and empower students and the wider community in the development of health promoting strategies [4]. The intervention focuses on participatory science and social entrepreneurship in a school setting.
Project SHINE was originally implemented in rural Tanzania and will now be adapted to the Indian context while maintaining its core components. SHINE applies a community-based participatory action research approach (CBPR) to engage students and communities in the development of sustainable strategies in order to improve sanitation and hygiene [4]. The research project will be piloted in schools and communities throughout Vellore, India involving approximately 300 students over the course of three years.
1. UNICEF. The Situation of Children in India: A profile. 2011 [cited 2016 November 14]; Available from: www.unicef.org/sitan/files/SitAn_India_May_2011.pdf.
2. Keusch, G.T., et al., Diarrheal diseases. Disease control priorities in developing countries, 2006. 2: p. 371-388.
3. International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS) and Macro International. (N.d). National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4). 2015 [cited 2016 November 14]; Available from: http://rchiips.org/nfhs/nfhs4.shtml.
4. Bastien, S., et al., Youth-Driven Innovation in Sanitation Solutions for Maasai Pastoralists in Tanzania: Conceptual Framework and Study Design. Global Journal of Health Education and Promotion, 2016. 17(1).
Funding
Miraglo Foundation (http://www.miraglofoundation.org/)
Canadian Institute of Natural and Integrative Medicine (CINIM)
http://ckc.calgaryfoundation.org/org/canadian-institute-natural-and-integrative-medicine-cinim
Participating NMBU researcher
External participants
Sri Narayani Health and Research Centre
19/06/2017 - 13:46
Prosjektleder
Department
Institutt for folkehelsevitenskap
Timeframe
01.04.2017 to 31.08.2019