In a recent opinion piece on NPR.org by Jane Otai, she describes the ways that, as a woman, she dealt with finding proper toilet facilities to go the bathroom in Kenya.
She holds no punches when describing the situation either.
“To get there, I had to walk 10 minutes, stand in the queue for my turn and be vigilant about my safety. At crowded times, like in the morning and evening, I might have to wait 10 minutes. The people in line would be dancing to keep from peeing and complaining about how the people using the toilets were taking too long.
In sum, a toilet was a facility I could only access with great difficulty.
It was also filthy. The toilets were never cleaned. One had to master special maneuvers to avoid messing oneself with human waste found inside. Since there was no toilet paper, people would wipe their hands on the walls. If you were wearing a sweater, you learned to remove it before entering — or else the stench would stick with you. And for this experience, I had to pay a shilling per visit, money that was not available readily.”
She also spends time on the fact that, by merely being a woman in an informal settlement in Kenya, her safety was at risk if she ever needed a toilet.
There was nothing worse than getting an upset stomach due to bad food or water. This meant visiting the toilet many times in a day.
I say “day” because, for a girl, visiting the toilet at night can be very risky. Walking in the dark gives men opportunities to prey on young girls — to molest or rape them. My friends and I were terrified of this possibility and never ventured out between dusk and dawn.
Her story is a universal one. We’ve heard it many times from women and girls that live in a country with inadequate or nonexistent sanitation. Our project is working towards providing a solution that not only gives a safe and private option for anyone to relieve themselves, but also a solution that caters to the needs of women and girls with a keen focus on MHM. The sanitation needs of women in developing countries has been neglected for far too long. By continuing to ignore these issues, we only further deny women and girls the opportunity to live life with dignity, safety, and an equal opportunity to education. The world can do better.
The entire post is definitely worth a read. It’s a sobering account for sure, but it’s one we all should have on our collective radar.