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Inadequate access to water, sanitation and hygiene (WaSH) exposes many vulnerable populations, especially women and girls, to preventable diseases around the world. This paper reports findings from a photovoice project that explored water-related risk perceptions and health outcomes among women in Nyanchwa, Kenya. Thirteen women in four age categories were recruited for this study in July 2016 using the 'snowball' technique. From the results, inadequate access to WaSH was associated with increased water collection burden on women and children; environmental pollution; poor educational outcomes; loss of time due to water collection and poor sanitation infrastructure. Some barriers to change identified include financial barriers and inadequate government support. The identified risks and barriers are important considerations for the design, evaluation and mainstreaming of WaSH programs in resource constrained settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tens of millions of orphan and vulnerable children in sub-Saharan Africa require long-term foster-care from community families. To support decisions to foster orphan and vulnerable children, it is necessary to understand dynamics predicting fostering attitudes. In this study, we assess a range of family, health, psycho-social and childhood factors in a community sample of Kenyan women (n = 1,974) and their association with fostering attitudes. Between 52 and 60 per cent of respondents reported very willing to foster children from various backgrounds. Greater wealth predicted greater willingness to foster, though the association was entirely mediated by overall health, HIV, divorce status, family functioning and meaningfulness of life. More frequent childhood adversities predicted significantly lower fostering support. Parents with greater life meaningfulness, overall health, family functioning and who are not facing chronic diseases like HIV may be better targets for child fostering. Reduction of frequent childhood adversities may increase overall willingness to provide foster-care in later life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]