Haiti earthquake: Wash, waste and fun

A new creative approach to waste management, public health and children in Haiti.
Blog: Teaching health and sanitation to kids in Haiti

An enormous amount of rubbish is created in the camps housing displaced people in Haiti, and dealing with it can be a big problem. In Petion-Ville Golf Camp Oxfam’s Public Health team have been working with three local artists and children to come up with an innovative and creative solution.

Photo: Jane Beesley

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Initially the three professional artists, two of whom live in the camp, were given the challenge of coming up with ideas for recycling some of the most common items of rubbish found in the camp, like plastic bottles and food trays.

Photo: Jane Beesley

One of the ideas they came up with was converting the food trays into toy houses. The boxes are collected from designated rubbish bins. The children first wash and cut them up, before reassembling the pieces into houses and painting them in bright colours.

Photo: Jane Beesley

Cut down plastic bottles are used as paint pots. The children could be given their own set of pots and paints but one of the objectives of the programme was to encourage sharing and working together. The artists work closely with the children - showing them how to mix colours and make up the toys.

Photo: Jane Beesley

The final touch is added with a public health message like ‘Wash your hands after visiting the toilet’, and ‘Wash your hands before eating.’ But the activity isn’t just about learning about good public health practices, or encouraging them to think about recycling and waste management.

Photo: Jane Beesley

"The stress from the earthquake is long lasting," explains artist Sanchez Martinez Evains. "The trauma is in their, and our, heads and hearts. This activity offers a distraction. This kind of programme keeps us all going. It stops us from thinking about what happened…it’s an escape and it’s helping them, and us, to recover, to restart our lives, to enjoy ourselves and have some fun."

Photo: Jane Beesley

"There are no or few psychologists in Haiti. Adults are more resilient, it’s the children that need to find a way to express themselves…a place to escape to and they can come here and be children again," explains Tamara Bruna, a Public Health Community Mobiliser.

Photo: Jane Beesley

"We have learnt about washing hands, painting, drawing and making houses," 11-year-old Melissa Mervilus tells us. " When we go home we encourage others to wash their hands. It’s a lot of fun here. There are others wanting to come and join us."

"Are you going to wash your hands now?" she adds as we talk.

Photo: Jane Beesley

Jane Maonga is an Oxfam Public Health Promoter.

"One of the things the children all have in common is that they all lost their homes in the earthquake. So it’s significant that they are making these houses…they are rebuilding houses, rebuilding their lives and in this way they have some control over their lives."

Photo: Jane Beesley

The group, mostly aged eight to12, meet for two hours every Saturday so as not to interfere with school. Oxfam runs a number of different programmes with children in several camps and now plans to include this successful pilot activity elsewhere.

Find out more about Oxfam's Haiti earthquake response

Photo: Jane Beesley