From the UK to Indonesia: Bringing human-centred design to the communities of Ende, Flores Island, Indonesia
by Christy Davis
Asia P3 Hub is pleased to partner with Kohler Company to facilitate Kohler design engineer James Bourne, as part of Kohler’s Innovation for Good program, working with Wahana Visi (World Vision in Indonesia) and communities in Ende, Flores Island, Indonesia. Kohler’s Innovation for Good program is a CSR Stewardship program that engages Kohler’s global partners to refine Kohler’s approach and deliverables. One of Kohler’s goals is to help develop and standardise the way Kohler’s associates can incubate ideas into commercial opportunities. One component of this Innovation for Good program is to understand how an associate might embed with one of Kohler’s partners.
A city of 60,000, Ende is located on the southern coast of Flores. Wahana Visi has worked in Flores since 2013 and supports 11 villages in Ende. James is focused on leading new and creative human-centred design for handwashing facilities in partnership with local World Vision staff and community members.
After a short orientation with the Asia P3 Hub team in Singapore (which included a yong tau foo lunch!), James joined the Asia P3 Hub multi-sector Co-Creation Workshop hosted by Wahana Visi in Jakarta on Feb. 22–23. Representatives from the worlds of business, NGO, UN and government explored water, sanitation and hygiene challenges, taking a combinatorial approach (see ‘Combinatorial!’ video) to unpack the problems and consider ways forward.
Based in the United Kingdom, this is James’ first trip to Indonesia. Now that he has had a few weeks to settle in, we’ve asked him how he’s getting on!
What is your initial impression of life in Ende?
James: Life in Ende is great, I haven’t seen any other westerners and everyone shouts out ‘Hello Mr.’ as I walk down the street! Apparently I am just the third foreigner to visit the village; the first was a missionary in 1930!
How did you spend your first 2 weeks?
James: I went to a village on Thursday where WV operates and stayed overnight in the home of a villager. I was able to do interviews with teachers, a whole class of children, and a number of parents. It’s been helpful to gain some really useful insights.
I’ve been hearing a lot about the struggles of the villagers in summer when their water source dries up and they have to travel 3km down the mountain to collect from a stream.
March 22 is World Water Day. When you think of “make every drop count” — what comes to mind?
James: Simple technology can make every drop count. My task here is to facilitate hand washing at critical times, which of course requires water. A mindful design can increase the adoption of hand washing while using less water than current practices.
James facilitated the first of two human-centred design workshops to build the capability of local WV and community members on simple but intuitive solutions from resources on hand. For example, the teams tackled this problem:
In just 5 minutes, teams provided an array of intuitive ideas to design a handwashing facility based on that photo, including:
· Use of bamboo to construct main structure
· Bamboo can also be used as pipe to direct water
· Use of rainwater harvesting to capture water from roof
· Use of rocks and a soak pit
· Capturing grey water for gardening / crops
· Filtering greywater through stones so that it can be used again
· Using blocks of wood as bungs in bamboo pipe, rather than taps
It was also recognised that the one key element missing from the photo to make a handwashing facility was soap — this led to discussions on where and when soap was used in the village.
It was agreed that it is indeed possible to build a handwashing facility with materials easily found in the village. However, the team agreed that it is pointless building a handwashing facility without providing the correct hygiene training. In conclusion, the hardware (handwashing facility) and software (Hygiene education) will have to be considered together for successful behaviour change.
Hence the final agreed design statement:
Our Design Challenge
How might we change hygiene behaviour for children at school and at home, and facilitate handwashing with soap at critical times?
Stay tuned as James continues his assignment in Ende!
