Ms. Parmina daughter of Mr. Noor Ali presently lives in Kot-e-Gird area of Kunduz city. She is 40 years old, married, and is having 4 children (3 boys and a girl) with a total of 6 members in her family (including her husband). Ms. Parmina is the only bread-winner of her family. She expresses the following impact/benefits of sanitation facility (household latrine) we constructed to her as a vulnerable returned IDP household in Kunduz.
She said, “I am a woman who is responsible not only for her children, but also for her drug-addicted husband. On one hand, internal conflicts and insecurity, while, on the other hand, my husband’s addiction forced me to take care of my family. My twelve-year-old son has to polish people’s shoes in the city to find a morsel of bread (helping her mother to find food). The worst health condition in a destroyed house (I inherited the house from my father), which even didn’t have a latrine, so we used to defecate in a corner of the yard in open area. My home was full of germs and dirt/rubbish, which caused my family had various diseases. In addition, I lost one of my children because he was suffering from a diarrheal illness. I couldn’t save him and lost my good looking child”.
Ms. Parmina added, “our economic situation is very weak and I have to face a lot of troubles in my real life. I didn’t have the ability (didn’t have money) to build a latrine for my family. One-day a woman came to my home and said, I heard from community elders that ADA a national organization is constructing latrines to the conflict affected returned IDPs. I went to Malak (village head) and asked him about what I heard. He said, it has its own list and I saw your name there, don’t worry they will come again and will survey you. Fortunately, after a couple days; ADA staff came and assessed us and I was considered as a beneficiary for the construction of household latrine. After some time, a construction company came and started construction activity of the latrine I needed the most”. When the construction work completed, a female worker of ADA told us about how to keep the house-yard, latrine, and children clean and the benefits of washing hands”.
At the end, she said, “now that I have a clean latrine inside my home, we are living with dignity and respect in our village. I am thankful for being so kind to us, while, hoping for more assistance in terms of provision of working opportunities for the poor and vulnerable families living in this area, I appreciate all the efforts and support made by ADA/Oxfam”.