Rehabilitation Project
There is no source of water at Ikoli Primary School. When students need water, they have to leave school and walk to Andati Spring in the surrounding village. Since this water is shared with the community, students often have to wait their turn at the back of the line.
The students get tired since the full containers of water are heavy for them. Time meant for studying and socializing is wasted as students look for water. This water is poured into one of the two filter containers the school has outside, while the rest is kept in the same containers used for fetching.
"The [filters] cannot supply enough drinking water, and most pupils prefer to draw water from the spring which is not treated. If you construct the water tank for us I am sure I will have a healthy school," said Deputy Headteacher Emmanuael.
Lack of water in the school has compromised hygiene. We observed that utensils are not cleaned very well. The latrines are dirty and smelly, and the lack of water is compounding this problem. There is no water to mop the dusty floors, so jiggers are bothering several students.
Ikoli Primary School was established in 2013 by the county. Enrollment that first year was 46 pupils across four grades. It has since grown into a full school from grades one to eight. Early Childhood Development classes are also held in the adjacent church building. Now, there are 559 students taught by 14 teachers. There isn't much more room to grow on the school's one-acre plot of land. The teachers do not have a staff room, and so they sit on the verandah of the classroom building.
Ikoli is a peaceful village with lots of trees, located about one hour away from our office.
Students start arriving from 6:30am to 8, immediately starting on cleaning the compound, sweeping classrooms and doing homework. Normal learning begins at 8:20am and go until lunch at 12:40pm. Classes begin back up at 2pm. Students have this long lunch window because most have to return home to find something to eat. There are games and club meetings at 3:10 before students are dismissed. Some students are always scheduled to go out and draw water from a spring and bring it back to school for storage. This water is stored overnight and used the following day.
What we can do:
Rainwater Catchment Tank
A rainwater catchment tank will help curb water scarcity here, enabling pupils to settle back into a steady class routine. This 50,000-liter tank will be used for drinking, cooking lunch for grades seven and eight as they prepare for high school entrance exams, handwashing, and cleaning the latrines and classrooms.
VIP Latrines
The school administration admitted that the girls' latrines have gotten so bad that they need to be demolished. We will have these demolished and build new latrines in their stead. While the latrines we build are normally split between the boys and girls, we will set aside all six latrine doors to serve the girls.
Handwashing Stations
Two handwashing 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.
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. This CTC club will oversee the new facilities, such as handwashing stations, and make sure they are kept clean and in working condition. They will be ambassadors for hygiene and sanitation among their peers at school and their families at home.
