Rehabilitation Project
This project is a part of our shared program with Africa Sand Dam Foundation. Our team is pleased to directly share the below report (edited for clarity, as needed).
Background Information
Founded in 1957, the school currently serves 100 pupils: 56 of whom are boys and 44 whom are girls. It employs eight teachers, five male and three female. Three subordinate staff are also employed by the institution, with one being male and two female. Many members of Kisaila Self-Help Group send their children to school here, and are aware of the water challenges. That is why the group’s first project request, upon joining with ASDF, is for a water tank at Muthei Primary School.
The Current Source
The school only has two plastic water tanks, one with a capacity of 10,000 liters and the other 2,500 liters. They catch rainwater during the rainy season and rely on this for a while. However, this water is barely enough to last the school a whole term; on average, daily water use is 450 liters. Both tanks usually get depleted within two months, plunging the school into an acute water shortage.
When this happens, pupils bear the burden of providing water for the school, and have to carry a five-liter jerrican each and every school day. Children find the water at the river and other convenient sources, using whatever containers they can get from home. The containers are rarely cleaned, and since they are handled by children throughout the day, they are very dirty. The lack of quality control measures concerning from which sources the water is fetched creates a loophole; during scarcity, students often resort to water from contaminated sources. According to the deputy head teacher, "many students miss school when it's declared compulsory for the children to bring water to school. But we use this measure since its not possible for the school to run without water!"
For the teachers’ cooking and drinking, the school buys water from some parents: ten 20‐liter jerricans per day, each container going for 20 shillings. Once the kids get the water to school, the subordinate staff is tasked with emptying the water into large cooking pots for it to be used during the day. All of this water is also combined in the larger plastic tanks.
Waterborne diseases are regularly encountered as a result of drinking contaminated water. This is because the pupils may bring water that is already contaminated, or the containers that they carry the water in may not be clean. These disease incidences lead to many absences and discomforts when in class, eventually affecting the pupils’ academic performance. This is coupled with poor personal hygiene practices, which may also lead to disease.
Sanitation Situation
There are six pit latrines available for the 100 students and their teachers. These toilets are in very poor condition. The number of users compared to the number of toilets is high, hence putting a strain on the ability of students to use the bathroom whenever needed. Also, the lack of a sustainable water supply in the school leads to the toilets not being cleaned. This poses a high risk to students, especially to the ones who go to school without shoes.
There are currently no hand-washing facilities. Some had been installed but were later destroyed by the pupils. The school administration plans on installing some more durable ones.
Training Sessions
The facilitator will hold training for one day at the school compound. This will involve students, teachers, and parents. CHAST (Children's Hygiene and Sanitation Training) will be used to teach personal hygiene and handling the new rainwater catchment tank.
This rainwater catchment tank will be 103,000 liters. Materials are being mobilized by parents cooperating with ASDF; they are a combination of what is locally available and what can be bought from vendors.
Three hand-washing stations will be installed within the school campus. These will be 250-liter containers fixed in place, close to the six latrines. The school management is tasked with making sure that the hand-washing stations are operational at all times: that they have both water and soap. The school health club will be trained so children can help monitor the use of the stations also.
The prolonged water insecurity at Muthei Primary has led to children transferring out to other schools. Once the new rainwater catchment tank is fully functional, we hope to see both school enrollment and performance increase.
Project Results: Training
Training was held in a classroom of Muthei Primary School. The school administration was notified ahead of time so they could ensure training attendance. Since the school has such a small population, administration decided that all 108 students should attend! Two teachers were also trained with their students. The school was so excited for information on hygiene and sanitation that they let the facilitator teach for an extra hour!
Since many of the students were of a very young age, the facilitator chose to use Swahili to ensure that health concepts were fully understood. Some of the topics covered were: personal and environmental hygiene, proper food preparation and storage, contamination, blocking the spread of disease, water treatment, hand-washing, and building a strong school health club.
Clean water will help students and teachers accomplished the practices they learned about! Student Mwende Racheal said, "We are all happy to have water in the school. We will use it to clean the classes and our hands each time to prevent diseases." Two new hand-washing stations were also delivered in time for training so that students could learn through demonstrations, and then practice hand-washing for themselves!
Rainwater Catchment Tank
Construction for Muthei Primary's tank began on March 7th. The surrounding community, namely the Kisaila Self-Help Group, organized a large team to help with the building effort. Everyone on the team was greatly motivated to work their hardest because the majority of their children attend this school! The school management also assisted parents in finding the right materials to build a strong tank, such as sand and stones. The construction ended up lasting 25 days. Over the course of each day, there were always at least 10 parents helping ASDF staff.
The main challenge encountered was the weather. Long rains began mid-March. The rains weren't too much to build a tank during, but instead distracted the parents! Most parents in this area are farmers, and they know that rainy weather is the best weather for being on their farms. Despite this, the parents endured the distraction and kept working, knowing that tank construction doesn't allow for breaks! Once parents understood the repercussions of abandoning construction, how it would essentially force them to start over, they redoubled their efforts.
Everyone was very grateful to have the tank finished so it could start collecting rain. Muthei Primary teacher Peter Mutinda said, "The performance and enrollment of this school will definitely improve in the coming years! We recognize the efforts of all stakeholders and donors in enabling the school to have water." The school has decided to use this water exclusively for hand-washing, drinking, and cooking.
Thank You for bringing water and knowledge to Muthei Primary School!
