SAVING LIVES WITH SOAP AND WATER HAND-WASHING IN RURAL CHINA
TEXT AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY PATRICK MCCARTHY AND LAURA HEETER
Chunhua, a small township in China's Shaanxi Province, is only a two hour drive from the famous terracotta soldiers at Xian. But while the former attracts droves of international tourists, Chunhua is known only for its apple orchards and extreme poverty. In a good year, average income hovers around 700 RMB (about $90), well under the official United Nations poverty line. Many families live in mud caves, resembling a scene from nearby Yanan, where Chairman Mao stationed the Chinese Communist Party from 1935 to 1948. Under the Communist regime, Chunhua benefited from a centralized network of hospitals and primary care physicians. Called "barefoot doctors" by the West, these physicians lacked many skills but still provided free health services in rural areas. In the early 1980s, however, China embarked on a period of "reform and opening," and its health care infrastructure collapsed. Public health became decentralized, privatized, and underfinanced. Forced to charge for their services, local practitioners abandoned educational programs in favor of more lucrative practices. Places like Chunhua were left without care.
In Chunhua today, there would be few affordable medical services or sanitary projects if not for the piecemeal assistance of non-governmental organizations (NGOs). At schools that are not supported by NGOs, even sinks are a rarity. How can teachers hope to foster good hygiene habits when local conditions make something as simple as handwashing impossible? As one elementary school teacher told P.H., "We go to the village secretary's house when we need water. Lack of water really makes things like handwashing difficult." Basic hygienic products are also largely unaffordableÑin the bathrooms of Chunhua schools, one finds more intestinal worms than bars of soap.
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