Dear Friends
UNICEF has initiated a
project which plans to bring about behavioural change in sanitation practices
of people around the country, particularly with regard to open defecation and
menstrual hygiene practices. Statistics show that every 1.2 seconds a
child dies of unsafe water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) practices in India.
Around 50 per cent of India’s cases of maternal and childhood under-nutrition
are also because of unsafe WASH practices.
However, studies show
that increase in infrastructure will not solve the problem unless there is
behavioural change.
UNICEF’s strategy is
based on the insight that faith based leaders have a greater chance of
influencing behaviours than other entities including government and
non-religious non-governmental institutions. Consequently there is a plan
to use this influence in bring about such mind-set change among the large
percentage of people in the country who still indulge in unsafe hygienic
practices.
My husband, Mr.
Josantony Joseph, has been tasked with doing a quick mapping of major religious
leaders across the country. It also involves mapping local religious
leaders/centres in sampled districts along the Ganga corridor.
As the mapping has to be done in
September/October itself, he is looking for those who can give him information
of the following kind:
a) Any
contacts in the Ganga corridor who could help in identifying local religious
leaders/centres during the field visits that will take place in the Ganga
corridor in the second half of September, 2014 (starting from Sept. 10, 2014)
And / or
b) Any
information about important religious leaders in any faith across India thatyou
know of (their names, contact details, geographical locations,
degree and kind of religious influence)
Any information you can share would be
highly appreciated. You can respond either to my own email address or his.
These are
Dr. Helen Joseph : helenjoseph111@yahoo.com
Mr. Josantony Joseph: josantonyjoseph@gmail.com
