Espag Secondary School, Rwanda

Project Snapshot

Country: Rwanda

GPS Coordinates:
  Latitude -2.244183
  Longitude 29.685867

Impact:
  Total Served: 500

Status:  Completed (What's This?)

Completion Date (or estimate): 10/30/2012

Share this Project

Upon completion of the project, our partner in the field reports...

The site was picked by both the school headmaster and Living Water staff; as the school had no access to any safe water source. They used to get water from the swamp located .05 of a kilometer away from the community, and because of this were suffering from malaria. The LWI Rwanda team was pleased to learn of the community’s use of a covered pit latrine as this will help prevent further spread of disease in the area. The community assembled a water committee consisting of five men and two women who assisted the team with the water project whenever possible. The well is cared for by one school committee member who is the head of cookers at the school. The school served by LWI Rwanda is a secondary school with 1,185 students who now all have access to the new, safe water source. The site was visited by Living Water staff, the school headmaster, and the District Engineer. The team agreed on the site and discussed the well management and maintenance. The school signed a MoU and they have committed to seek local funding to upgrade it into a submersible pump. For the sustainability part of the project, the school planned with the electrical pump provider to have regular maintenance, and the same school has put aside a budget for repair services. "Karambo III" is aka "ESPAG" which is a school. The school has a hospital in it. One well is for the school and the other is for the hospital, named "Institute de Gitwe". They have plans, like the rest, to upgrade these to submersible electric pumps with a gravity fed tank scheme. That means all 5 hand pumps have plans to be upgraded in the future to SEP's.

The LWI Rwanda team had an opportunity to meet with forty-two year old community member and farmer, Berenike Niyoyite, who stated, "The comparison of the old water and new water is totally different because the old was from the swamps and had worms but the new one is so clean, this community is thankful for the project that managed to help this school."

During the hygiene education, the LWI Rwanda team addresses: Hand washing, how to properly transport and store water, disease transmission and prevention, how to maintain proper care of the pump, as well as signs and symptoms of dehydration and how to make Oral Rehydration Solution. All of these lessons are taught in a participatory method to help community members discover ways to improve their hygiene and sanitation choices, and implement community driven solutions.

Project Photos

Recent Project Updates

10/30/2012: Espag Secondary School Well Complete

What would your school day be like without the occasional drink of cold water?  We are excited to report that now the students at Espag Secondary School, in Rwanda, don't have to wonder about that either!  We just posted a report from the field including GPS coordinates and pictures from the site

10/18/2012: A Brief Project Update

We are told by our partner that Project updates are on their way; we expect them in the next few weeks.  We'll be sure to pass them along as soon as we can.