On January 24 and 25, 2022, the 1st Committee Meeting was held in the target areas of the Project, Ndiwa and Suba South, for the sustainability of the project.
This committee consists of about 10 officials from the Ministry of Health, including the chiefs (local leaders) in each target area, and is responsible for continuing the project ends in February 2026.
In many international aid projects, one of the issues is that beneficiaries tend be dependent on support organizations.
For example, in some projects we see not much self-help efforts from the communities to improve the situation. This is because of the belief that foreigners will bring a large amount of funds.
And when the project ends, the targets achieved in the project could be reversed and return to the state before the project started.
The JICA Grassroots Project aims to promote the awareness and growth of local residents in order to avoid such situation. We involve the beneficiary from the planning stage of the project to each stage of implementation.
As one of these activities, this committee meeting is held with the hope that chiefs who are respected and active leaders in the community will take on the central role of this project.
During the meeting, the chiefs and participants shared information on the endemic areas based on our baseline survey. We also shared that we would like the community to prevent jiggers through community self-help efforts from 2026 onwards.
In addition, the chiefs expressed their gratitude for the JICA grassroots project for carrying out this project for jiggers, and actively discussed what contribution they can make as locals. They also agreed on the frequency of future meetings and how to communicate with each village.
At this meeting, it was confirmed that jiggers is recognized as a serious problem that needs to be solved, and that chiefs are ready to play an active role for that purpose.