HABITAT: To ensure children live in a disease free environment, Plan installs pit/compost toilets. Habitat is also improved through reforestation projects that combat land degradation and improves soil quality. Commercial tree planting provides communities with timber and fruit such as mangoes.

The following is an example of a Plan-assisted habitat project in Peru.

"I like latrines because they are pretty, you can decorate them with different ornaments and pictures. My community is cleaner and better organised. My house is cleaner - it should always be clean."

Doris, 8, Peru.

Clean and safe living conditions in communities are vital for health, particularly children's health, who are often the first to get sick when forced in live in unsanitary environments.

In Peru, Plan has a number of habitat projects such as providing clean drinking water, electricity, home improvements and latrines.

Installing outdoor latrines under Plan's Basic Sanitation project for families, schools and public buildings such as health centres, has been a major part of Plan's work in Peru that addresses the habitat-related needs of families and communities.

The Basic Sanitation project is run as a joint effort with the community, who supply the labour, while Plan supplies the resources such as cement, pipes, iron and technical assistance. The latrines, which use a concrete septic tank, are built as stalls and people usually build them with the same material used to build their houses: dried clay bricks, stone with a roof of corrugated iron or thatch. The floor is a concrete slab.

Before Plan installs latrines, people deposited their excreta in buckets and then buried the contents in shallow holes near their homes - it was a disposal method that posed serious health problems.

These inadequate sanitary conditions increased the risks of people catching gastrointestinal parasites and skin-related diseases that mostly affect children who are in daily contact with the soil and domestic animals.

As well as health benefits, a clean habitat provides 'flow-on' benefits. When children are healthy they are happy. They are more able to learn and do well at school; they are more eager to participate in their community thus helping its development for the future.

The Basic Sanitation project is funded by Plan, who also co-ordinate all activities with the Ministry of Health and the Director of Environmental Health. Plan also organises the community to carry out the project and families contribute by supplying some of the construction material, provide their non-skilled labour and participate in informative meetings and training workshops. The local council contribute by transporting sand and concrete.

Pedro, one of the parent's from a Plan-assisted community in Peru, accurately sums up the benefits of the Basic Sanitation project as:

"I have invested everything I gained from my harvest to build the room for my latrine; it looks very pretty. I have built it with bricks, and my shower is on the side. My family has dedicated all their time and efforts towards this project We believe this project is important for our health and above all, for the children's health. Just one more thing: we don't like it when they call them latrines, couldn't they be just rural restrooms?"