Happy Blessed project complete
Posted by Steve Hall on August 21, 2019
In 2019 H2O for Life funded a number of women led organizations working in East Africa to promote safe water access and better sanitation services in schools. Uganda Women’s Water Initiative (UWWI) was one of the beneficiaries of this funding. These women carried out a comprehensive Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Education (WASH) program at Happy Blessed Primary School, located in Gomba district, Uganda. With funding from H2O for Life and a contribution from the school and the community, a solution to the lack of proper latrines and unsafe drinking water was solved! Here is their completion report:
Water
A 20,000 Liter rain water harvesting (RWH) tank was constructed by UWWI at the school. This solved the problem of children walking for over 2 kilometers, across a highway, and then down a bushy, slippery slope to access an unsafe water source. In addition, 8 bio sand filters were constructed which has greatly reduced the diarrhea cases in the school from five per day to zero during the most recent school term, according to the Head Teacher.
Sanitation
Initially the school only had 2 toilets which the boys, girls and teachers all shared causing the pupils to waste a lot of class time queuing for the toilet. Many of them would end up choosing to use the nearby bushes as a toilet rather than waiting in line. UWWI constructed an 8 stance latrine and also a washroom. The children no longer have to wait to use the latrines and the girls have a safe and clean space to wash up when they start their menstruation periods.
Initially the school only had 2 toilets which the boys, girls and teachers all shared causing the pupils to waste a lot of class time queuing for the toilet. Many of them would end up choosing to use the nearby bushes as a toilet rather than waiting in line. UWWI constructed an 8 stance latrine and also a washroom. The children no longer have to wait to use the latrines and the girls have a safe and clean space to wash up when they start their menstruation periods.
To effectively use the limited available resources and further enhance the capacity of the trained UWWI women masons, the construction of the tank was done entirely by the women. To ensure the involvement of the host communities, which is home to the children who go to this school, the UWWI women used their advocacy and conversation skills to lobby for locally available materials like sand, gravel, labor, food and marram from these communities.
WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene education)
With the background knowledge of the importance of behavior change in accepting and utilizing sanitation and hygiene facilities, the project offered WASH education to the pupils every day during construction. Topics of education ranged from the importance of proper latrine use, importance of hand washing after using the latrine, menstruation and menstrual hygiene management and the importance of keeping the latrines clean at all times. For proper operation and maintenance of the established WASH facilities, an Operation and Maintenance Committee was formed and then merged with the School Health Club. The head teacher, 2 science teachers and a senior woman teacher were specifically assigned the lead role in ensuring the proper operation and maintenance of the established structures through the formulated O&M Committee. The O&M Committee will have the overall mandate to continue with sanitation awareness in the school and health education talks about menstruation and menstrual hygiene management.
With the background knowledge of the importance of behavior change in accepting and utilizing sanitation and hygiene facilities, the project offered WASH education to the pupils every day during construction. Topics of education ranged from the importance of proper latrine use, importance of hand washing after using the latrine, menstruation and menstrual hygiene management and the importance of keeping the latrines clean at all times. For proper operation and maintenance of the established WASH facilities, an Operation and Maintenance Committee was formed and then merged with the School Health Club. The head teacher, 2 science teachers and a senior woman teacher were specifically assigned the lead role in ensuring the proper operation and maintenance of the established structures through the formulated O&M Committee. The O&M Committee will have the overall mandate to continue with sanitation awareness in the school and health education talks about menstruation and menstrual hygiene management.
The head teacher (Mr. Waiswa John) in an interview had this to say:
“We are so grateful to UWWI and H2O for Life for all that they have done to our school. Actually the 2 old toilets that we had were constructed on someones land and that person wanted us to demolish them because they had over filled and were smelling very badly. I was so worried what we would use as a school. When UWWI came to our school and gave us the good news of receiving funds to construct 8 stance toilets and a washroom for girls, 20,000L tank and 8 bio sand filters. I was so excited and called Parents and Teachers’ association to discuss the opportunity. The neighbor on whose land we have the toilet is one of the parents. In the meeting, this parent was touched by the H2O generosity and offered enough land to our school to have the toilets constructed. I am happy to say that we have enough toilets and our children don’t have to spend time queuing for the toilet.”
“We are so grateful to UWWI and H2O for Life for all that they have done to our school. Actually the 2 old toilets that we had were constructed on someones land and that person wanted us to demolish them because they had over filled and were smelling very badly. I was so worried what we would use as a school. When UWWI came to our school and gave us the good news of receiving funds to construct 8 stance toilets and a washroom for girls, 20,000L tank and 8 bio sand filters. I was so excited and called Parents and Teachers’ association to discuss the opportunity. The neighbor on whose land we have the toilet is one of the parents. In the meeting, this parent was touched by the H2O generosity and offered enough land to our school to have the toilets constructed. I am happy to say that we have enough toilets and our children don’t have to spend time queuing for the toilet.”
Since the tank was constructed during the rainy season, the school immediately had enough water to use and the children no longer have to walk long distances to fetch water. In addition, the water filters were immediately put to use. In his own words, the head teacher said:
“I am so happy that in just 2 months there is great improvement among the pupils in terms of water related diseases because we have zero cases of diarrhea in our school in just 2 months”.
“I am so happy that in just 2 months there is great improvement among the pupils in terms of water related diseases because we have zero cases of diarrhea in our school in just 2 months”.
In an interview with the director of studies, he had more stories to share:
“I am very sure that next term the enrollment will greatly increase because of the WASH services in our school. Parents have now seen that the school has water, toilets and bio sand filters which means they will all want their children to study from our school. Specifically, the girl’s enrollment will increase given that they now have a washroom to use when in their menstruation periods because initially girls lacked, access to basic menstruation management and access to water which they now have….For the first time, no girls have left school in the two months …”.
Mr. Waiswa is happy that now he can save 60,000 Ugx per month that he used to spend on first aide medication every time a child was ill and 23,000UGX that he used to spend on fueling his car every week to fetch water for the school.
