Hygiene, Health, and Disease Prevention

Zoe Rwanda Terimbere equips youth and vulnerable families with clear, practical knowledge on hygiene and disease prevention. Through group training and occasional home visits, participants learn about handwashing with soap, safe water storage, reproductive health, basic sanitation practices, and preventing common illnesses such as diarrhoea and other infections. Sessions are interactive and grounded in local realities so that both young people and caregivers can apply what they learn immediately.

Households are supported to improve their living environment step by step. Families are encouraged to build or upgrade clean, well-ventilated latrines, handwashing tools, separate animal shelters from living spaces, and manage household waste safely. Participants often organize mutual-help days to provide labour for latrine construction, while Zoe contributes essential materials such as iron sheets or other key items. Group members hold each other accountable for maintaining clean compounds and adopting low-cost practices that keep water and food safe.

To strengthen access to healthcare, Zoe Rwanda Terimbere helps families enroll in community health insurance schemes and provides initial financial support for those unable to pay the full cost. As their small businesses grow, households gradually take over the remaining payments until they can sustain health insurance on their own. When serious illness is identified, especially among children at the time of recruitment, the programme can offer emergency assistance for medical treatment. Trained youth leaders and volunteers also help peers recognize early signs of illness, seek timely care, and challenge harmful myths, reducing preventable sickness and enabling children and youth to stay in school, work, and community life.

In addition to this, after the training, Zoe encourages its youth to apply hygiene standards at home as follows:

✅ Body and clothing hygiene

✅ Cleaning the house and its surroundings

✅ Sleeping on an over-the-floor bed

✅ Having a dish rack

✅ Having simple cloth hangers (such as a string for hanging clothes)

✅ Keeping all household utensils clean

✅ Using and drinking clean water

✅ Having a clean, roofed, and covered toilet

✅ Having a composite pit

✅ Building proper livestock shelters