The clean-up brigade

TURKANA, Kenya—They’re officially named “block health committees,” but to me, they’re the Kakuma refugee camp clean-up brigade, teams of six volunteers per block—a neighborhood of approximately 900 houses—on a mission to ensure safe and sanitary conditions within the camp.

 

“We work with the community health promoters,” explains Louis, one of the block leaders, referring to International Rescue Committee refugee staff members who provide health care services at the local level. “They give health messages [on topics including the importance of handwashing] to each household, while we do a hygiene inspection.” 

Louis, a refugee from Sudan, checks on a family’s latrine to determine if it is clean and functioning properly, and looks around for potential mosquito breeding areas. On average, each block health committee member will visit 10 households a day in order to inspect one entire block each week. 

“It is important for the Block Health Committees to be community-led,” explains Haron Emukule, the International Rescue Committee’s environmental health manager in Kakuma. Through these volunteers, all refugees like Louis, the IRC’s environmental health program is able to reach every household in Kakuma, promoting hygienic practices and encouraging families to dispose of their trash in regulated refuse pits. 

In the future, notes Haron, the block health committees may become and independent entity like the community-based Hope for the Vulnerables that was born out of a previous IRC-run education and sanitation program.