Sacha Westerbeek is one of the people trying to help some of the one million Sudanese people who have fled their homes in what the UN is calling "the world's worst humanitarian crisis". She is working for the United Nations children's agency, Unicef, in Nyala, southern Darfur and is writing a diary for BBC News Online about her experiences.
Saturday 17 July
0900:
The Unicef staff party ended yesterday around 2300. I wake up with a clear head, but a bit of a buzz in my ears because of the - very loud - speakers. I'm learning to appreciate many elements of the Muslim culture and one very obvious advantage of not drinking alcohol is that it is much easier to get out bed the following day! I need to have a clear head for the meetings we will have today.
Six agenda items and three hours later we have finished the first bit. Main focus of the meeting was the hygiene education campaign, which aims to prevent outbreaks of cholera and diarrhoeal diseases. Unicef and partners are in the process of finalising the campaign outline/strategy and we hope to be able to kick off by the end of July.
 Hygiene education saves lives |
The numbers of IDPs (internally displaced people) suffering from diarrhoea is on the increase. Latrines and water point are being constructed every single day, but this is not enough. The majority of the IDP population is coming from very remote areas where they have not been exposed to "luxury" services such as basic education or water and sanitation. Since so many of them are now living in crowded conditions in the camps, the unhygienic conditions are causing serious problems. Many hygiene promoters have already been working with the IDPs on the need to use latrines; washing hands - with soap - after using the latrines and before preparing the food; the need to cover food and how long you can keep it etc.
The information should be brought to the people in an understandable and "fun" way. We hope that by changing this very basic daily behaviour, there will be a change in their daily routine. When the IDPs go back to their villages we hope that their behaviour will be maintained. A simple and relatively cheap intervention such as hygiene education sounds trivial, but can save thousands of lives at the end of the day! The rest of the day I'll be working on the campaign, so I'm afraid that there will be no more interesting stories. Tomorrow I'll be going to West Darfur. That will be a whole new experience.
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