Rabuor Primary School

Rabuor Primary School is located in Rabuor Village of Siaya County, Kenya. It has a total student enrollment of 464, most of which are from very poor farming families who barely earn enough to get by. The school employs 12 teachers and three support staff, who are parental figures to these young children.

The school has a unique landscape dotted with jagged clusters of igneous rocks; a resource that the school has benefitted from every time they tackle a construction project. Students also enjoy playing on or basking on these rocks during break times. The community members of Rabuor practice subsistence farming; growing an assortment of maize, beans and yams on their small plots.

Water

Academics should be the focus of any normal day at school, but there are many interruptions throughout. At some points, pupils have to be sent our of the school to find water that will be used to prepare lunch. This is especially common during the driest months of the year, when the small plastic tank the school has doesn't get rain on a daily basis.

There is a hand-dug well in the neighboring community, but even that source dries up during the hottest time of the year, and it was dry at the time of this visit. At this well, students would tie their buckets to a rope and lower them down the hatch to pull up water. When students can't access this well, they walk even farther to a spring. When springs dry up, things get even worse. The school is especially hard-hit because of their lack of water storage facilities; they're not able to prepare for the dry times.

All of this walking and the heavy lifting of water tires these students, and they have trouble focusing in their classes. Whether it be from the well or spring, administration is sure that these students are consuming dirty water because of all the cases of typhoid reported.

Sanitation

There are some useable pit latrines on school grounds, but the pits are almost full. These are subject to overuse, for there are way too many students relying on each latrine. The lines are long, and students spend an awfully uncomfortable time as they wait during class break. These latrines are being swept out on a daily basis, but they need to be rinsed with water. Cleaning with water is often sacrificed because it would require extra trips out into the community.

Headteacher Alfred Adero said, "The health situation of our pupils and the community at large is in a very unsatisfying state because of inadequate hygiene and sanitation facilities, coupled with acute water shortages cutting across the area. The situation gets worse during the dry season when a few springs found around here dry up and people have to get water from bad sources. Pupils suffer the most because the school also gets hard hit due to inadequacy of water storage facilities."

Here's what we're going to do about it:

Training

Training will be held for two days. The facilitator will use PHAST (participatory hygiene and sanitation transformation), ABCD (asset-based community development), CTC (child to child), lectures, group discussions, and handouts to teach health topics and ways to promote good practices within the school. The CTC method will prepare students to lead other students into healthy habits, as well as kickstart a CTC club for the school.

Hand-Washing Stations

This CTC club will oversee the new facilities, such as hand-washing stations, and make sure they are kept clean and in working condition. The two hand-washing stations will be delivered to the school, and the club will fill them with water on a daily basis and make sure there is always a cleaning agent such as soap or ash.

VIP Latrines

Two triple-door latrines will be constructed with local materials that the school will help gather. And with a new source of water on school grounds, students and staff should have enough to keep these new latrines clean.

Rainwater Catchment Tank

A 50,000-liter rainwater catchment tank will help alleviate the water crisis at this school. The school will also help gather the needed materials such as sand, rocks, and water from the spring for mixing cement. Once finished, this tank can begin catching rainfall that will be used by the school’s students and staff.

We and the school strongly believe that with this assistance, standards will significantly improve. These higher standards will translate to better academic performance!

This project is a part of our shared program with Western Water And Sanitation Forum (WEWASAFO). Our team is pleased to provide the reports for this project (formatted and edited for readability) thanks to the hard work of our friends in Kenya.

Project Updates

September, 2019: Giving Update: Rabuor Primary School

A year ago, your generous donation helped Rabuor Primary School in Kenya access clean water.

There’s an incredible community of monthly donors who have come alongside you in supporting clean water at Rabuor Primary School. Month after month, their giving supports ongoing sustainability programs that help this school maintain access to safe, reliable water. Read more…

July, 2018: Clean Water at Rabuor Primary School

A new rainwater catchment system was built! Rabuor Primary School in Kenya now has a new source of safe, clean water thanks to your support. Handwashing stations were installed so that students can clean up after using their new latrines, and students and staff have received training in sanitation and hygiene.

New Knowledge

The training officers requested that there be fifteen participants comprised of students, teachers, and parents. These participants would then be expected to be ambassadors of hygiene and sanitation among their peers. However, Headteacher Agutu was not happy to hear that he would have to select only a few student leaders, believing that every student needed the information firsthand. On the day of training, a bell was rung to summon all the students to the assembly ground where board members had already gathered to hear what facilitators had to share.

We held a separate management training just for the school administration and some parents. The parents showed a lot of interest in learning how to take care of the tank and new latrines, probably because of how hard they worked to support our artisans during construction.

During the training with all of the students, the trainers were surprised to discover strong gender bias among students. Everyone was involved in an election for members of the new child to child health club, which would spearhead hygiene and sanitation management. They only elected boys, even to oversee the girls' latrines! The training officers implored everyone to create a culture where women and girls are encouraged to participate in leadership. After this, the school held a new election to select more girls.

Students really enjoyed the handwashing demonstrations. The trainer taught them a dance to remember all 10 steps for proper handwashing. With the dance, students were able to quickly grasp and internalize each step.

"This is the knowledge that will rescue us from a lot of health challenges and will prevent loss of lives, time, and money. Therefore, I promise you that we will work hard to ensure that we teachers, parents, and even students follow everything you have taught us here today for the betterment of our lives," Teacher Manasses Ochieng' said.

Handwashing Stations

Rabuor Primary School now understands the importance of handwashing. Not only have they embraced the two new handwashing stations we delivered, but they've actually constructed supplementary handwashing stations all around school grounds. The new stations are outside of the new latrines, while handwashing containers have been placed outside of the old latrines and all of the classrooms.

VIP Latrines

This project funded the installation of six new ventilated improved pit (VIP) latrines. All of these new latrines have cement floors that are easy to use and clean. And with a rainwater catchment tank, there should be enough water to keep them clean all the time.

Pit latrine construction required a lot of perseverance. Being the rainy season, the workers had to make multiple attempts to get a pit deep enough before it was flooded with rainwater.

Rainwater Catchment Tank

Construction for this 50,000-liter rainwater catchment tank was successful! The only hiccup throughout the entire process was rainy weather that delayed our artisans.

Parents, staff, and students helped our artisans gather everything needed for construction. All the while, women cooked meals for the artisans, and the school provided accommodations for the artisans during their work. Local men and women helped our artisans with their manual labor, too.

The process officially began with our staff and school administration looking around the school compound to try and determine the best location for a new rainwater catchment tank. This needed to be the best site with good, clean roofing to catch the rainwater. Then, we cleared the site: excavating the soil within the required measurements to make level ground for the tank foundation. The foundation was cast by laying stones on a level ground and then reinforcing it using steel, concrete and waterproof cement.

Both the drawing pipe as well as the washout pipe were affixed as the foundation was lain. The wall was built with ferro-cement techniques through six layers. The inner wall was plastered while rough casting was done on the outer part.

Finally, the catchment area was dug, plastered, and a staircase installed.

Dome construction could begin after the superstructure had been given enough time to settle. The manhole cover was fitted, inlet pipes were connected to the roof gutters, inlet screens, ventilation pipes (breathers) and overflow pipes were all done to standard.

Once finished, the tank was given three weeks to undergo complete curing before it was cleaned and handed over to Rabuor Primary School, though we will continue to offer them unmatchable support as a part of our monitoring and maintenance program.

The headteacher is very excited about all of the drinking water that will be available for his students. He's already thinking about the future and has proposed that the tank's water should only be used for drinking, cooking school lunch, and some minor cleaning. He's asked to continue using the old unprotected sources to undertake major cleaning chores and the watering of any vegetation.

Mr. Godfrey Ochieng' is a parent of a Rabuor Primary School student and local mason.

"I love this tank. It is the biggest I've seen in all my life," he said. "I observed every part of this tank as it was carefully constructed because I am a qualified mason. I can assure you that this tank was well-constructed with artisans who are experienced, and they really loved their work! Therefore it is durable and it is the pride of our school."

April, 2018: Rabuor Primary School Project Underway

A severe clean water shortage at Rabuor Primary School drains students’ time, energy, and health. Thanks to your generosity, we’re working to install a clean water point and much more.

Get to know your school through the introduction and pictures we’ve posted, and read about this water, sanitation and hygiene project. We look forward to reaching out with more good news!