First School Handwashing Station Piloted

As the School Water, Sanitation and Hygiene movement (SWASH) takes off, El Porvenir also has gotten involved. While we have always built wells and latrines in schools, for the first time in 2010, we have built a handwashing station in a school for the children.

This first handwashing station is in the San Francisco school in the municipality of San Lorenzo. This was financed by Global Water. This will help get the children in the habit of washing their hands (with soap!) after using the latrine and in other crucial moments. This is key in bringing the health impact full circle.



While we have often done school projects in the past, our health education material is more geared towards communities, so one focus for us in the next period is to create more materials that specifically focus on school groups. We do have our coloring books, but we want to do more. That's the challenge for 2010, as well as fine-tuning the new infrastructure such as the handwashing station.

In these photos (especially below), you might notice the large tank above the taps. This school/community has access to a local water system, but with water rationing, they only receive water for 2 hours a day. So, we built this small tank to collect enough water to last all the school day for the children.