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Improve access to water and sewerage and also to provide education in habits to improve mother-child nutrition in the families on the tea plantations in the district of Rathnapura, Sri Lanka

The objective of the project that Save the Children is carrying out in the district of Rathnapura, Sri Lanka, is to improve access to water and sewerage and also to provide education in habits to improve mother-child nutrition in the families on the tea plantations. In addition, it aims to reduce morbimortality associated with the water-transmitted diseases and bad hygienic practices among the most vulnerable mothers and children.


CONTEXT
Sri Lanka has a population of 20.48 million inhabitants, one third of which are women and children. Out of the total population, 1.5 million live on tea plantations, this gives an idea of the project's dimension and the number of people who are in a similar situation to that foreseen in the present project.
 
Sri Lanka ranks 73 out of 178 countries in the Human Development Index. In spite of an improvement in human development, and services of education, health and child protection, Sri Lanka still faces the challenges of a low-income country. These challenges are even more obvious in determined pockets of the population such as the case of the families living on the plantations.
 
With respect to healthcare, the nutritional indicators, particularly among the women and children on the tea plantations are worrying. 
 
PROJECT
The aim of the project is to improve access to water and sewerage, in addition to raising awareness about practices for a better maternal-child nutrition, in the families on the tea plantations.
 
To achieve these objectives the following will be performed simultaneously: 
 
An improvement in the water and sewerage installations, including the installation and repair of latrines and water supplies to reduce the number of diarrhea cases. The Save the Children policy of child protection will be ensured, and these installations will be adapted to children's needs. The beneficiaries will contribute through their labor in the excavation and transport of material.  
 
An improvement in the quality of the healthcare installations to ensure that the women and children can receive effective treatment.
 
The performance of community awareness campaigns concerning the importance of maintaining a balanced diet, carried out in such a way that the mothers' knowledge is reinforced with respect to improving the children's nutrition.
 
BENEFICIARIES
The beneficiaries are 120 vulnerable ethnic Tamil families (516 people taking into account that the size of the average nuclear family is 4.3) living on tea plantations that originally belonged to the colonial British Empire. At the end of the project the beneficiary homes will have a latrine.