On the 2nd and 3rd December 2023, the JICA-NUITM grassroots project received the Director OGAWA Construction Company (Japan), Mr.Hiroshi Ogawa, Mr.Kouhei Ogawa, and Ms. Noriko Ichihara
The main aim of their visit was to see the situation of jiggers patients’ houses and check the soil type and other available materials. Therefore, JICA Grassroot project introduced the SABABU floor making team to OGAWA to learn about how other teams are doing floor-making for jiggers patients in Kenya. In the future, see a more sustainable way to improve the floors of the affected persons living in a dilapidated environment.
*Dr Lynne Elson previously of KEMRI-Wellcome Trust and University of Oxford in collaboration with Dr Ulrike Fillinger of icipe developed the first low-cost floor to prevent jiggers infestation (https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-3192495/v1). Since then they have partnered with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, KEMRI, and Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology to further improve the floor design and conduct a large clinical trial in 2023-2024 (https://ichgcp.net/clinical-trials-registry/NCT05914363 “Evaluating Impact of Improved Floors on Health (SABABU)”). It is this SABABU (Sakafu Bora, Afya Bora-Utafiti) floor which Dr Elson came to teach us and our mason from Ndhiwa, assisted by Mr. Fred Juma, a mason for the SABABU project in Bungoma.
Mr. Patrick Lidovolo, the President of the Rotary Club of Kaimosi, Vihiga also attended with the main aim of learning the low-cost floor-making process to improve the living standards of affected persons in Vihiga County.
The Ndhiwa MP representatives led by John Wachara were also present and he was able to facilitate community engagements for this particular process, he said he was able to learn about the SABABU floor and he said he would be able to put this into practice as they were planning to improve some of the households for the affected persons.
The floor-making process was successful and we were able to include the community through effective participation led by the community religious leader, Pastor Richard Anyama, who was very active in the community involvement activities to help the family in various ways to be able to lead a healthy lifestyle and facilitate the water pouring process (curing of the floor).
