THE KEY TO SUCCESS – Local participation

Housing for Health is also a methodology guided by a set of Healthy Living priorities to ensure the most urgent health impacts are addressed in items within a house. The success and continuity of Housing for Health projects, both in Australia and overseas, have largely been due to the involvement of local communities.

In Australia, more than 75% of Housing for Health staff are local Indigenous people. Working with skilled managers and team leaders the local, paid staff  undertake a range of responsibilities including:

  • Participating in on the tools training sessions
  • Helping plan the daily schedule of houses to survey and fix
  • Testing and fixing houses at Survey Fix 1 and 2
  • Assisting licensed trades with the major fix work
  • Entering data using the on-site office
  • Talking with householders, in their own local language, about the work being done and the key safety and health principles behind the work.

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In Nepal, local team members plan, build and maintain the Village Sanitation Program under the guidance of local Non-Government Organisation Community Health and Development Society, Nepal. The teams on the ground have been essential to the program expanding to neighbouring villages.

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