Thank you so much.I am a student of environmental health technology at Levy mwanawasa medical university Zambia.Im delighted to be part of SusanA.
I'm looking forward to seeing great works accomplished together.

Hi Teresa! Bienvenida! Welcome.

I-m sure will be a pleasure work toguether

Kind regards

Lourdes

Thank you for your kind words Chaiwe, and sorry for the late reply!

Me and the other colleagues are currently still discussing and finding my place in the Secretariat, but I hope to update you on that soon. My regional focus will be mainly the MENA region and Latin America.

Concerning my work on religion and development: While working in the sector programme we had a very broad approach looking at many different contexts, religions, regions etc. In the last years however I have mainly focused on the Jordanian context, where we worked with both Islamic (imams, muezzins and waithat, or female preachers) and Christian (priests and sisters) actors. I did actually work with Islamic female preachers on the topic of MHM in cooperation with UNICEF and the Royal Health Awareness Society.

Very happy to see that there are discussions already ongoing in the forum! It is a topic I´m very passionate about and would love to explore further.

All the best,
Teresa

Welcome to SuSanA Teresa!

It would be great to learn about the main focus of your new role within the SuSanA Secretariat? 

I find it interesting that your previous work focused on religion and development. We have had discussions here on the forum in that area. Here is one started by Lena who has done some research on the subject.  Research Study: Cultural Beliefs and Religion/Spirituality in Sanitation Programs in Sub-Saharan Africa - SuSanA Forum

I find that religion has such a huge influence on MHM first and foremost in the case of Sub-saharan Africa, while it also has a huge influence on the design of sanitation facilities, sanitation practices, and even the quality of Faecal sludge. 

Was your work in this area focused on a specific region, or did you explore many different contexts?

Regards,
Chaiwe

Hello everyone!

My name is Teresa Häberlein and I joined the SuSanA secretariat mid-August. I am based in Bonn and would like to take this
opportunity to introduce myself to the community as we will be working closely together.

After joining GIZ in the sector programme on Religion and Development in Bonn, I have been working in Jordan as a technical
advisor for the last few years. There I was involved in two projects, one with a communal water use focus and one with a focus on WASH, particularly WASH in institutions, MH and pandemic prevention.

During my work in Jordan I already had a few points of contact with SuSanA, both by attending webinars and by using the
resources on the SuSanA platform. Therefore, I am thrilled to join the secretariat and I hope to contribute to the smooth running and further development of the platform.

I am looking forward to working together and getting to know as many of you as possible.

Best regards and greetings from Bonn,
Teresa