Project
Muungano Secondary School
Project Complete!
Project Proposal: 5 Hydraid® Filters.
Tanzania is the home of Mt. Kilimanjaro, Mt. Meru, the Ngorongoro Crater and the great migration of wildebeest, zebra, 2 million strong, make a great circuit across the Serengeti National Park to the greener pastures of the Maasai Mara National Reserve in Kenya during July through October. The schools (e.g. Bethlehem Primary Schools - 150 students and 11 teachers, Kilimani Primary school - 831 students and 21 teachers and Muungano Secondary School - 539 students and 68 teachers) are in the remote villages nestled between Mt. Meru and Mt. Kilimanjaro, where on a clear day you can see the majestic Mt. Kilimanjaro from the schools. Mt. Meru is visible most days, once the clouds have lifted.
Tanzania is the home of Mt. Kilimanjaro, Mt. Meru, the Ngorongoro Crater and the great migration of wildebeest, zebra, 2 million strong, make a great circuit across the Serengeti National Park to the greener pastures of the Maasai Mara National Reserve in Kenya during July through October. The schools (e.g. Bethlehem Primary Schools - 150 students and 11 teachers, Kilimani Primary school - 831 students and 21 teachers and Muungano Secondary School - 539 students and 68 teachers) are in the remote villages nestled between Mt. Meru and Mt. Kilimanjaro, where on a clear day you can see the majestic Mt. Kilimanjaro from the schools. Mt. Meru is visible most days, once the clouds have lifted.
Girls are responsible for gathering water at home and at school. In these schools there are two water sources: river water and a rain water harvesting system with tanks. Girls travel up to 20 minutes round-trip to haul 10 lb buckets (on their head and hand carry) of the same river water that is used to wash clothes and water their livestock. Although these rivers are vital to the existence of their communities, they are also a source of disease and sickness. Kilimani Primary School is the only school that has a rain water harvesting systems that is used to capture rain water, during the rainy season. The rain water is also contaminated, because it runs off the tin roofs of the school where monkeys play. The Hydraid biosand filters help eliminate the parasites, bacteria and viruses that cause water-borne disease which make the students sick with diarrhea and dehydration. We also use color coded buckets to retrieve the water from the river/tank (e.g. green buckets) and we use blue buckets to retrieve the clean water from the filters. We also teach our students how to build “tippy taps” and teach them the importance of washing their hands, which also eliminates disease.
How do the students get their clean water? Each school Head Master/Mistress selects "Water Ambassadors” (WA) to be responsible for taking care of the filters and making sure the students get access to their clean drinking water. It’s a privilege to be a WA, which gives them ownership of the project and pride of taking care of the filters. After school the WA fill up the filters and in the morning, they retrieve the clean water from the filters and either distribute the water in buckets and place them in the classroom(s) and/or they distribute the water at the water station around the school, so the students have easy access to getting clean drinking water. After the water is distributed in the morning the WA fill up the filters again, so they students have clean drinking water for lunch. At the end of the school day the WA fill the filters in preparation for the next morning. If there is water left over from lunch, the students are allowed to take water home to their families. They are also responsible for keeping the outside of the filters clean and they make sure there is no standing water near the filters, which can be a breeding ground for mosquitoes/malaria.
Using the Hydraid® filters we help transfer knowledge and skills through training teachers and their students in the education of health, hygiene and sanitation practices in our schools in Tanzania. This “train the trainer” approach allows both teachers and students to understand why filtered water is important to their health, including hand washing and other critical hygiene safety initiatives and it helps to promote cultural and behavioral changes to ensure long-term use.
About the filters: Hydraid® filters use elegantly simple sand filtration to purify water. With proper use, they remove 99.999% of parasites, 90%-99.0% of bacteria, and 80%-99.9% of viruses.The filters are suitable anywhere, installation is easy, and there are no moving parts to repair or replace. In addition, no electricity or plumbing is required because the filtration units are gravity-fed. Once our filters are installed, safe drinking water begins to flow not for one week, not for one month, but for 10 years to come. In addition, the filters eliminate the need to burn unsustainably harvested wood to boil and purify the water, cuts greenhouse gas emissions and indoor pollution.
Using the Hydraid® filters we help transfer knowledge and skills through training teachers and their students in the education of health, hygiene and sanitation practices in our schools in Tanzania. This “train the trainer” approach allows both teachers and students to understand why filtered water is important to their health, including hand washing and other critical hygiene safety initiatives and it helps to promote cultural and behavioral changes to ensure long-term use.
About the filters: Hydraid® filters use elegantly simple sand filtration to purify water. With proper use, they remove 99.999% of parasites, 90%-99.0% of bacteria, and 80%-99.9% of viruses.The filters are suitable anywhere, installation is easy, and there are no moving parts to repair or replace. In addition, no electricity or plumbing is required because the filtration units are gravity-fed. Once our filters are installed, safe drinking water begins to flow not for one week, not for one month, but for 10 years to come. In addition, the filters eliminate the need to burn unsustainably harvested wood to boil and purify the water, cuts greenhouse gas emissions and indoor pollution.
