If you're new around here, you might hear us talk about WASH a lot.

WASH stands for Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene. This includes the infrastructure and systems people need to safely access water, use a bathroom, wash their hands, manage waste, and stay healthy.

 

But here's something we've learned through our work:

 

A lot of our work at Solidarity Engineering has been shaped by women living in displacement camps telling us they don't feel safe in their communities. We listen to those concerns, and we look for the places where engineering can make a tangible difference.

 

At Belén Shelter in Reynosa, Mexico, the women's showers are one example.

 

The old shower area was enclosed with tarps instead of permanent walls. The showers technically worked… but the space wasn't secure. Holes were being poked through the tarps from outside, compromising the privacy and safety of the women using them.

 

So Dison helped build permanent walls around the women's showers.

It's a relatively simple infrastructure improvement. But it's also a protection intervention.

Before + After: You can see the old shower walls behind Dison, where tarps were hung along the chainlink fence for privacy. Now the concrete blocks have been built up to provide a secure new wall.

As WASH engineers, our job isn't just to make sure people have access to water and sanitation. We have to think about whether people can safely use those systems, too.

 

A shower should be a place where you can close the door, take a breath, and know you're not being watched.

 

A bathroom should provide privacy.

 

And infrastructure should help people feel safer, not put people at greater risk.

 

That's why we build. We build protection that lasts.

 

 

P.S. Have you seen our blog? 👀 We post a new story every month, so if you want to get a little deeper into what we're building (and why), that's the place to go.

Solidarity Inc is a 501(c)(3) Charitable Organization

EIN: 85-3924084