657 Hand Washing Stations! #done

Guess who's on a natural high!! Yours truly!!

And guess who's project is a HUGE success!! Yep, you guessed it...MEEE!!!!

Mother and child washing hands with newly built tippy-tap.

Mysteriously, (and very magically, might I add) myself and my fellow villagers were able to meet our goal of building 657 hand washing stations!! And it only took two weeks! We have met our goal of increasing the number of hand washing stations in the community by 20%! Woot woot! Now before I go getting ahead of myself, the project is coming together nicely (after a whole year), however there are still some challenges that I am facing that maybe YOU can help me with.  I've spoken with my Rwandan colleagues, Peace Corps Administration, and fellow PCVs, however I am still at a loss for how to successfully tackle one BIG challenge.

You see, my project is one that deals with behavior change; getting the people in my community to improve hand washing behaviors that they learned as children and have carried into their adult lives.  Had I known behavior change would be so hard, I may have tried to tackle another issue, but anything worth anything takes a little bit of a fight right?  And when the project does succeed in all respects, I will be that much more proud of myself; not only for taking on such a challenge, but for tackling it with persistence and unmatched dedication.

And I digress.

Here is my issue. 
I have been working "on the field" (as we say here) to fulfill some monitoring and evaluation.  I have a short questionnaire that I must go through with each family to see the impact that the hand washing station has had on their family's hand washing behaviors.  However for the most part, I can see the impact before I even ask the first question.  The families that have hand washing stations are aware of the importance of washing their hands, but they still are NOT washing their hands.  How do I know this?? Because the station jerry cans are not filled with water, the lids (where the water comes out like a faucet) is missing, there is no soap in the soap dish, the sticks that were attached to the stations for tipping are no longer attached, etc.  Now here is where you all come in.  I need ideas (inexpensive ideas) for how to encourage the community to use the hand washing stations to wash their hands during the critical times of the day: before cooking, before eating, and after using the latrine (toilet).  I have already tried the emotional approach: that bacteria and germs from the hands can cause diarrhea, which is one of the top three killers of children under 5 in developing countries;  I have tried the yuck factor: that not washing your hands is just plain gross; and I have tried the lets-give-them-something-for-free (the something free being the hand washing station) factor.  None of the above has worked.  Yes, there are some people who have taken our messages to heart and use the stations to wash their hands, but the vast majority does not.  Another reason could be that water is scarce and far to fetch, but with the wet season quickly approaching, I figure we can start encouraging the people to use rain water, as it is much easier to set a basin out to collect rain rather than walking alllll the way to the water well.

At any rate, this is what I have been working on as of late...any ideas on what I can try next???

Love and Peace Corps,
Dametreea

PS. Global Handwashing Day is on October 15 and I will be hosting an awareness day (carnival-style) at my health center.  I'm hoping the many fun hand washing games will capture the attention of the village children, as it will be easier to change their behaviors than it will be to change adult behaviors.  Wish me luck!!