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Week 3: Surveys and Micro-planning

This week we completed the map of Mundheta village that had 500 houses. We were once again accompanied by field staff from the Sehgal foundation, Rachel and I were accompanied by Yan Mohammed , Kavita and Ikran Khan (volunteer villager), and Prerana and Jackie were accompanied by Jakub (volunteer villager) and Birsingh. The volunteer villagers were extremely helpful since they knew the roads very well and could properly guide us through the area we still had to map taking into account what we had already mapped.
Partial map of Mundheta by Jackie Bornstein
After we had completed the areas of the village that needed to be mapped, we got back together with the other group and realized we still had work to do. Our total number of households were different that the one of the other group since my group had counted the plots where houses were located, and the other group had counted the ration cards. This meant that the other group had way more houses plotted than us and we had to go through the list of names and figure out how many ration card holders there  were for each plot of land I had mapped.
Partial map of Mundheta by Stephanie Muench 
After completing the maps for this village we realized that the majority of these houses do have toilets, even though the government records state there are no toilets in the village. This is good news! not only because many people already opt to use a toilet instead of open defecation, but also because the culture of having a toilet is already prominent in Mundheta, so those who do not have one will have a higher chance of wanting one. We know that the Village of Naseerpuri that is at close proximity to Mundheta has a larger population without toilets, however they may have a high influence from Mundheta to implement the use of toilets.
(Field staff Kavita and Jan Mohammed, Interns Stephanie, Rachel and Jackie with some individuals from Naseerpuri village)
Successfully mapped the village of Naseerpuri in one day plotting a total of 132 houses. Mapping this village took us half a day since it was one forth of the size of the previous village and it has a clear road system that makes it easier to divide it between the two teams as well as put the map back together.
 IMG_7960(Complete map of Naseerpuri Village)
When putting the maps together we were easily able to fit each of our partial maps Naseerpuri since we divided it by a road that splits the village into two equal parts. On the other hand, we will not be able to fit the partial maps of Mundheta without help of the villagers so we can make sure that the streets on each of our maps align perfectly.
At the beginning of next week we will be conducting the survey questionnaires for a sample in the Villages of Mundheta and Naseerpuri to the Village Health Sanitation and Nutrition Center  (VHSNC) members. We will also put together all of the information we have gotten from the micro-planning (mapping) and survey questionnaires conducted in both villages and create a list with the names of those who do not have toilets in order to get them to attend the workshops we will hosts promoting the Swachh Bharat Mission and the implementation of toilets.
IMG_7948
This cow was watching over our shoulders making sure we were doing a good job mapping the Naseerpuri village!
See you next week!

Stephanie Muench

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