Why Don’t Mothers Purify Their Water in the Sugar Cane Camps of the Dominican Republic?

Now that we have described what Barrier Analysis is and the seven steps involved in the actual process, we want to look at two examples from the field.

Diarrhea was found to be very high in bateyes (sugar cane camps) in International Child Care’s child survival project area in the Dominican Republic. The staff knew that water purification was very low from the KPC survey done at baseline. In response to the situation, the staff wanted to determine why water purification was done by so few families. The staff members believed that the reasons for the lack of water purification (as well as the high prevalence of diarrhea) were (1) that mothers had not heard the current health education messages (e.g., "Boil your water for 15 minutes") often enough, and (2) that people were just too lazy to do it. A focus group guide was prepared using questions to examine each determinant. Then focus groups were done in three different communities in one day, talking mostly with mothers of young children but also with other people in the community. The study examined three related behaviors at once: purification of water by boiling, using bleach, and using iodine. We will now look at the questions that were used, what the staff members found, and what was done about it.