TAS K A N A LYS I S - Finding out what is needed
to do a job effectively
5-7
Story: Joe, a new instructor, led a series of classes and activities to help health
workers learn about sanitation. He explained the importance of latrines,
how deep to dig them, and how far they should be from houses and water
sources. He showed drawings of different ways to make latrines, and
took the students to see two ‘model latrines’ with cement platforms. He
advised them about ‘setting objectives’ for the number of families they
hoped would have latrines after one year.
At the end of the course, Joe gave the health workers an exam with
many questions like: “How far should a latrine be from the river?” and
“Why is a cement platform better than wood?” Everyone answered the
questions correctly, and Joe was pleased.
But when the health workers tried to start latrine projects in their villages,
they ran into difficulties.
Mary found that people simply were not interested in latrines because
they “smell bad.” She did not know how to deal with that.
Frank managed to get 7 people to build latrines—but then they did not
use them.
John ran into construction
problems. In his village, no
one had ever made cement,
so he did his best to cast
the first platform himself.
But John did not think to use
reinforcing wire. And he did
not know that cement will
not harden well unless it is
kept wet for 2 or 3 days after
casting. So the platform was
very weak.
Unfortunately, John had
convinced the village chief
to build this first latrine. For
several days the platform
held together. But one
evening the chief’s brother,
who was overweight, used
the latrine and the platform broke to pieces.
Poor John learned a very important lesson!
Moral: When you teach something, be sure you cover all the points needed to do the
job properly.