MITU organized a special meeting for stakeholders of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) sector in Tanzania. This meeting, held on the 7th December 2018 at the White Sands hotel in Dar es Salaam, was a collaborative effort of MITU, the National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR) Mwanza research centre, WaterAid, and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. MITU was holding this meeting for a third year in a roll as part of the Sanitation and Hygiene Applied Research for Equity (SHARE) consortium activities in Tanzania.
The meeting was attended by WASH research scientists, policy makers and programme implementers from Tanzania (42) and from other African countries, including Malawi (2) and Zambia (1). The main objective of this meeting was to highlight SHARE consortium research activities implemented by MITU and WaterAid in Tanzania and work done by SHARE partners – Malawi Epidemiology and Intervention Research Unit (MEIRU) in Malawi and Centre for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia (CIDRZ). The secondary objective was to bring together key stakeholders in WASH and provide opportunity for sharing information and networking.
During the meeting, Drs Kenneth Makata, Safari Kinung’hi and Elialilia Okello presented preliminary results from the ongoing Mikono Safi study, which means “clean hands” in Kiswahili, a cluster-randomised trial aiming to assess the effectiveness of a behaviour intervention, including promotion of handwashing with water and soap, among school-aged children in the Kagera Region of North-Western Tanzania in reducing the prevalence and intensity of Ascaris lumbricoides and Trichuris trichiura infections. The trial is implemented in 16 primary schools located in 3 districts (Bukoba municipality, Bukoba and Muleba) among the 7 districts of Kagera region.
Overall, this was a highly successful and well-organised event with plenty of time for formal presentations and informal discussions. At the end, participants agreed to continue holding the meeting each year beyond the period covered by SHARE consortium which ends in December 2018.
