"My name is Annalakshmi, I am 32 years old and since 1992, I have lived with my husband and two children in Vazhavanthankottai refugee camp in Tamil Nadu State.

My camp always lacked the facilities like heath services, drinking water supply, proper sanitation etc. People here suffered from various diseases and health problems such as diarrhea, malaria and other minor ailments.

Every individual in the camp practiced open-air defecation due to the lack of toilets in the camp. 2 years ago, the bushes and waste land, which was used by us for open-air defecation was cleared and taken over by Industry. Due to this, we, the community people were forced to the situation where we need to defecate either in the early morning or late night. Especially, the women community in the camp became the victim of this situation. The women need to travel miles even to pass urine. Some of the men in our community and nearby villages passed teasing comments while going for defecation, which made us feel emotionally upset.

1 year ago, ADRA India entered our camp to do the baseline survey and we expressed our need for toilets to them. After their analysis, they adopted our camp as one of their target area and started their intervention. They formed a Water Environment and Sanitation (WES) Committee, with the representation of key people from the camp. They also selected a volunteer from our community to represent us.

They gave lot of inputs, training and education about water and sanitation related issues to our community and the importance of hygiene was promoted throughout the community by ADRA India. After their intervention, I became more aware about basic health issues and its importance in daily life. I also started encouraging the community people to practice basic healthy behavior. I communicate messages to community people regarding the preparation of oral re-hydration solution (ORS), significance of chlorinating drinking water and importance of hand washing which was taught to us by the ADRA staff during the community meetings. I also promoted construction of soak pit and kitchen gardens which reduced the diseases to a greater extent.

Now, with the support of ADRA India and the Government of Tamil Nadu, our community has 68 toilets in use. WES Committee is strengthened to the extent that they are taking care of the maintenance of the established infrastructure. They allotted one toilet for every 10 women of my street. WES Committee collects Rs. 5/- as maintenance charge from the toilet users and saves it in bank. This amount is utilized by them to empty the septic tank when they are filled and to meet out other incidental expenses with regard to providing hygiene environment for our community. Two of the beneficiaries who are using the toilet clean it every week on rotation in order to keep the toilet clean and tidy. The whole community members involve in cleaning the surrounding to keep our community clean and tidy.

ADRA India's intervention on water and sanitation for our community has provided a drastic change in providing us a hygienic environment. I feel proud being a member of our refugee camp and I hope ADRA India will be with us all the way to achieving our dreams of making our community a model one."