Household Survey Method

Staff

● Facilitator asks the questions and explains protocols to the participants and gets consent from the school and parents prior to the survey

● Counter counts each vote and enters data into a mobile device or records on paper to enter later

Supplies

● GPS device

● Android device

If the time and resources are available, a household survey should be completed because it is the most representative type of survey. In the target neighborhood, choose households randomly. Divide neighborhoods into segments. Randomly select a household at the edge of the segment and complete surveys at every eighth household. Ask to speak to an adult who manages water in the household. If the person is not available or does not have children in the eligible age group, then move to the next household. Once a household is selected, introduce the SaniPath team and explain the purpose of the exposure assessment. Let them know the process will take about 30 minutes. A suggested introduction is below:

My name is ___________ and my teammate’s name is _____________. Thank you for agreeing to help us with our exposure assessment of fecal contamination in your neighborhood. We are doing this assessment in [number]______ other neighborhoods around the city. The results will be shared with _____________________. The results of this assessment will be used to make improvements around the city so it’s in your best interest to answer the questions honestly. Please answer the questions as best as you can. We will not record your name with the results. We may take down the location of your house, but it will not be used outside of this project. The process will take about 30 minutes. We know that some of these questions are sensitive, but we encourage you to be honest.

Before we begin the survey, we would like to talk with you about your participation and will ask whether you agree to participate. We will now go over the informed consent with you before beginning the survey.

If it is possible to collect GPS points at each house, these should be recorded on each household survey.

School Survey Method

Staff

● Facilitator asks the questions and explains protocols to the participants and gets consent from the school and parents prior to the survey

● Vote Counter counts each vote and enters data into a mobile device or records on paper to enter later

● Vote Collector goes around to collect tokens from participants

● Bag Filler “restocks” alternate set of bags

Supplies

● 180 tokens (for “Yes” answers)

● Token receptacle

● Survey sheet to tally “Yes” votes for each question

In addition to household surveys, school surveys should be used to assess exposure for children. The exposure assessment team should work with local collaborators to identify schools within each target neighborhood to survey. Prior to administering a school survey, permission may be needed from the school headmaster or superintendent. Please ask your local collaborators or the community leaders who would be the appropriate contact for a particular school.

To encourage participation, a local community leader should tell participants (schools and parents) about the topic of the survey (assessing health risks due to fecal contamination in your neighborhood) and let them know that their contribution of time can help improve their family’s health.

Once the school’s consent is obtained, the first step for the school survey is to formally introduce the exposure assessment team and explain the purpose of the assessment. Let them know the process will take about 1.5 hours. Ask the children to introduce themselves as well, ideally in the format of a quick, culturally appropriate introductory exercise. A suggested introduction is below:

My name is ______________ and my teammates here are ___________and _____________. Thank you for agreeing to help us with our exposure assessment of fecal contamination in your neighborhood. We are doing this assessment in [number]______ other neighborhoods around the city. The results will be shared with ________________. The results of this assessment will be used to make improvements around the city so it’s in your best interest to answer the questions candidly. Please answer the questions to the best of your ability. The process will take about 1.5 hours today. Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns throughout this process.

We know that some of these questions are sensitive, but we encourage you to be honest. The enumerators will not know how you vote because all of the tokens look the same. Your votes will be anonymous with the method we are using.

Before we begin the survey, we would like to talk with you about your participation and will ask whether you agree to participate

General Procedure for School Survey Voting

Obtain assent from students prior to survey. Select 10-12 year old students (4^th-6^th graders) to survey, with about 15-20 students per survey. Explain the purpose of survey and voting method. Ask students to put their heads down during the survey. Hand out a token to the students before each question. Ask each question and give the possible options for answers. Ask students to hand over the token to vote “YES” for relevant answer choice. Tally and record the number of “YES” responses after each answer choice by counting the tokens. Repeat asking questions and counting tokens for each question.

Community Survey Method

Staff

● Facilitator asks the questions and explains protocols to the participants

● Vote Counter counts each vote and enters data into a mobile device or records on paper to enter later

● Vote Collector goes around to collect tokens from participants

Supplies

● 45 small, opaque bags labeled with the question number - these will be used to collect votes for each question

● 900 tokens of each of 5 colors (for example: 900 green tokens, 900 red tokens, 900 orange tokens, 900 purple tokens, 900 brown tokens)

● 20 Token bags for participants - each bag should have 45 tokens of each color for voting

● Paper copies of survey forms

In addition to school surveys, community surveys can be used. The exposure assessment team should work with local collaborators and community leaders to identify potential community groups within each target neighborhood to survey. Ideally, you would ask to be allowed to survey a group that already meets regularly, such as a parent-teacher association or at a religious site such as a church, temple, or mosque.

If the exposure assessment team is planning to do the survey as part of a regularly scheduled meeting it should be made clear to the organizer and participants when the survey will be done – before or after the meeting – and how long it will take. Otherwise, the team should work with a local leader who can help get people to come to a separate meeting. The former method is ideal because the team will not have to find a meeting location.

To encourage participation, a local community leader should tell participants about the topic of the meeting (assessing health risks due to fecal contamination in your neighborhood) and let them know that their contribution of time can help improve their family’s health. If available, monetary (or other) incentives can be offered for the hours spent in the community survey. This may encourage participants to attend and stay for the length of the survey.

The number of community meetings the SaniPath assessment team is able to conduct will depend on the time and resources available. One to two community meetings per target neighborhood should be conducted. The team should assemble at least 15 community members. A smaller group will not be representative so in the event of a low turnout, the team should postpone or cancel the meeting if possible until more participants can be located. Because of the time involved in passing out tokens for the voting method, 20 participants should be the maximum.

The meetings should be conducted in the relevant local language. The facilitator of the meeting should be supported by at least one other team member who can record the answers on the score sheets and help with refreshments. Efforts should be made to ensure the poorer or female community members participate equally. In some contexts, the implementers should consider holding separate meetings for men and women if they feel that participation is hampered by presence of the opposite sex.

The voting method has been developed based on community participatory assessment. It should work well with various types of participants even if they are not literate or well educated. Using visual aids will enhance the process. Since the questions in the survey cover personal hygiene, participants might consider them sensitive. The greater privacy offered by this method can ensure more honest answers.

Once the participants arrive, the first step for the community meeting is to formally introduce the exposure assessment team and explain the purpose of the assessment. Let them know the process will take about 2 hours. Ask the community members to introduce themselves as well, ideally in the format of a quick, culturally appropriate introductory exercise. A suggested introduction is below:

My name is ______________ and my teammates here are ___________and _____________. Thank you for agreeing to help us with our exposure assessment of fecal contamination in your neighborhood. We are doing this assessment in [number]______ other neighborhoods around the city. The results will be shared with ________________. The results of this assessment will be used to make improvements around the city so it’s in your best interest to answer the questions candidly. Please answer the questions to the best of your ability. The process will take about 2 hours today. Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns throughout this process.

We know that some of these questions are sensitive, but we encourage you to be honest. The enumerators will not know how you vote because all of the tokens look the same. Your votes will be anonymous with the method we are using.

Before we begin the survey, we would like to talk with you about your participation and will ask whether you agree to participate. We will now go over the informed consent with you before beginning the survey.

General Procedure for Anonymous Voting

Before the survey begins, the team should explain how the anonymous voting will occur.

There should be 20 participant bags prepared, each with 45 tokens each of 5 colors (total of 225 tokens per bag). This will allow each participant to have enough tokens to vote for each question.

For each question, the Facilitator should read and explain the question, and then read and explain each answer choice. For each answer choice, the facilitator should tell the participants the color associated with each answer choice. This will be followed by a round of voting. To vote, each participant will deposit a token associated with the color of their answer choice into a bag that will be passed around by the Vote Collector. For example:

Facilitator: <reads and explains question>

Facilitator: We will now vote. (Repeat answer choices and color for each answer choice). Think about what your answer will be. Reach into your bag, grab a token with the color of your answer choice, and deposit the token into my assistant’s bag. Remember not to let anyone else see what color token you have taken from your bag to deposit in my assistant’s bag.

When the question is complete, the Vote Collector should bring the bag with the votes to the Vote Counter, who will then begin to count the votes for that question while the facilitator reads the next question. The amount of votes for each answer choice should be recorded on a paper survey form.

Note: Votes do not need to be counted right away. It is important to label the voting bags with the question number so that they can be counted after the survey if needed.

If there is time, the results could be tallied and shared with the whole group to promote transparency and as a way of verifying that the participants understood the voting process and that they answered honestly. For example, the participants might say that they do know that open defecation happens in their neighborhood even though no one voted for the open defecation answer.

The user should print a paper survey form (Behavioral Data Collection: Downloads) for use while conducting the survey. Data can then be entered into the mobile device directly after survey is conducted. It is important to carefully count the number of respondents to each question because these will be used to extrapolate the exposed population in the neighborhood.