Giving Update: Munyanda Primary School

Now a year since the water and sanitation projects were installed at Munyanda Primary School, during one of our recent field visits we saw many great changes there. Before the rain tank, pupils had to bring water from home when there was no water on hand and it was very hard for the teachers to determine whether the water was clean or not. Today, Munyanda tells a different story. The compound is very smart and neat, and both teachers and students are seen washing their hands after visiting the toilets.

Sanitation Teacher Carolyne Avungana shared with us the many positive changes she has seen these projects drive over the last year at her school.

"With the water tank in the school, the water bills of buying water have gone down...we only pay during dry seasons," she said.

"The school population has also increased...and we believe more [pupils] are yet to come because our school has a new face. The performance of this school also went up...This is because pupils are always in class [now] as compared to the past when they were taken out of the class to go and collect water which wasted a lot of their precious time," Carolyne said.

One of those students, 13-year-old Keilla Lopez, has personally felt the change in the routine now that school time remains focused on just that: school.

"Before [your team] came to our school, we wasted a lot of time going home for lunch [because] the water that was brought to school was used to prepare teachers' meals and cleaning classrooms," remembered Keilla.

"Now with the tank in the school compound, our food is prepared in time, thus we have time for [studying]."

Standing strong one year later