Amena Begum lives in Chotobighai Union, Sadar Upazila, Patuakhali District, Bangladesh. Her household is classified as ultra-poor. In May 2022, she joined the Hat Bhabaranjan Doctor Bari Courtyard group under Tuskhali Community Support Organisation (CSO) — a women-led structure through which the Right2Grow programme delivers nutrition and hygiene sessions to households across the district. 

The Courtyard ignition sessions Amena attended are designed to build demand for improved Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) and nutrition practices at household level. They explain what improved sanitation looks like, what it costs, and what difference it makes to children’s health. The sessions also cover the link between hygiene and nutrition — how faecal-borne and waterborne diseases undermine a child’s ability to absorb nutrients, and how improving WASH conditions at home directly reduces that risk. For Amena, the sessions were a prompt to act. 

In May and June 2023 — about a year after she first joined the Courtyard group — she installed an improved off-pit latrine and a Maxi-basin at her home. Both were paid for with her own money. The improved off-pit latrine replaced whatever sanitation arrangement the household had before. The Maxi-basin supports handwashing at the five critical times: before food preparation, before eating, before feeding a child, after using the toilet, and after cleaning a child. 

For a household classified as ultra-poor, the calculation matters: fewer waterborne and faecal-borne illnesses means fewer treatment costs. Better hygiene conditions support better nutrition outcomes for children. Under Right2Grow, WASH and nutrition are addressed together because disease burden and poor diet reinforce each other in stunting children’s growth. Amena’s investment addressed both at once. 

Her decision was noticed by other members of her CSO. They began using her household as a practical example when encouraging other families in Chotobighai Union to make similar investments — a visible demonstration that the improvements described in Courtyard sessions were achievable, affordable, and real. All 779 CSOs under Right2Grow in Bangladesh are women-led and focused on community advocacy. Peer motivation is central to how the programme works: one household acting on what it learned becomes an argument for others to follow. Amena continues as an active Courtyard group member, attending sessions that reach other women with the same information that led her to act in the first place.