Schools Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Project

In Tanzania, less than 10% of all schools have functioning handwashing facilities with running water. Only 20% of schools have water supply facilities within the school premises (source: GoT SWASH guidelines). School children are therefore unable to partake in safe hygiene and sanitation practices and are often exposed to unsafe water. Lack of access to safe water often means Hand washing , especially with soap, is not commonly practiced in rural developing regions. Lack of hand washing can lead to children becoming sick and unable to attend school, regularly missing school can have a significant long-term impact on a child’s education and opportunities. Disease can also be passed on to families, which can result in time off work and a reduction in income.

Children in Oldenderet, Muungano, Manyire and Umoja Primary School, located in Arusha Tanzania, often were not washing their hands because there were no accessible hand washing facilities or soap available. The schools had a total of 1936 students with only two buckets of water with no soap to wash their hands. This leads to the spread of germs and illness, resulting in absence from school due to ill health such as Typhoid or Diarrhoea. Absence affects grades and can be a reason that students can’t progress to secondary school.

The Project:

Recognizing the importance of hand washing for students’ health and their families health, Made with Hope have partnered with Ndoto In Action to implement our handwashing project at Oldenderet, Muungano, Manyire and Umoja Primary Schools. The project kicked off in July 2021. Ndoto In Action began with hosting community inception meetings at both schools. These meetings involved the school boards, local government leaders, teachers and parents. The purpose of these meetings is to provide information, discuss ideas, answer questions the community may have and to discuss their involvement in the project.

Once the Community meetings have been conducted the project implementation began. The School Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (SWASH) project is categorised into two parts. The first being the construction of handwashing facilities. Ndoto In Action coordinated the delivery of materials for the handwashing facilities at Oldenderet, Muungano, Manyire and Umoja Primary Schools at the end of July 2021. Local builders began construction of the handwashing stations in August, which were completed within 3 weeks. The stations have a total of fourteen taps that have been connected to 5000 thousand litre water tanks, which will supply harvested water from the classroom rooftop.

Transparency Truth: the cost to build just one hand washing station is around £3,100 (price in 2021).

During construction of the handwashing stations the second phase of the project was implemented. For the new handwashing stations to be most effective we wanted to ensure the practice of handwashing became routine and common practice for all students. To ensure this was the case Ndoto In Action recruited two new SWASH project volunteers. The volunteers worked with Ndoto in Action to deliver 12 handwashing sessions delivered across 6 weeks. These sessions were designed to inform students of the importance and benefits of regular handwashing and to teach the most effective techniques for handwashing.

Next Steps:

Upon completion of the project Ndoto In Action hosted handover ceremonies at both schools to celebrate the opening of the new handwashing stations. In the interest of always improving projects and processes, Ndoto In Action held a feedback session with volunteers to find out how the sessions went and their tips and ideas for how to improve for future projects. We are so excited that students are now using the handwashing stations and looking forwards the school is hoping to see a reduction in illness and absence amongst students.