Join the e-debate: Are the JMP Post-2015 indicators on WASH in Schools a step in the right direction?

Do you want to influence the global Post-2015 WASH agenda? Do you want to ensure that WASH in Schools gets the prominence it deserves? If you do, then join the e-debate on the JMP Post-2015 indicators for WASH in schools. The results will serve as an input for the public consultation of the JMP Post-2015 Working Groups, which ends on September 20, 2012.

The e-debate starts 3 September and is this first in a series of three on WASH in Schools scheduled for the coming months. The topics are inspired by questions asked during the implementation of the SWASH+ project, an action-research school WASH project in Kenya.

How can you join in?

1. First have a look at the WASH in Schools-related targets, goals and indicators listed on www.washinschools.info/page/2034
2. Go to the e-debate page on CreateDebate.com using this link: washurl.net/bg3fhz. If you are new to CreateDebate.com, you will need to create a (free) account.
3. Make sure you include your function title and organisation in your online profile so that people know who you are.
4. Add your argument to the debate or write a rebuttal. You can link to another website as evidence for your argument or embed a relevant video.
5. You can add as many arguments as you like but you can only cast one vote for each argument (you can change your vote).
6. Remember to keep discussions civilised. We will observe a zero tolerance policy for abusive language.

This first e-debate runs until Friday 14 September, after which we will post a summary of the outcome on www.washinschools.info and submit it to Post-2015 discussion forum on www.wssinfo.org

Make your voice heard and join in on washurl.net/bg3fhz!

6 years of school WASH research have come together!

SWASH+ is an action-research and advocacy project focused on increasing the scale, impact and sustainability of school water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) interventions in Kenya. Since September 2006, SWASH+ has worked in 185 primary schools in four districts in Nyanza Province, Kenya to identify challenges and analyse innovative solutions for sustaining school WASH. The project’s randomized controlled trials and numerous sub-studies have resulted in a compendium of journal articles, research reports, one-page research summaries, stories from the field, photo essays and videos now available on the new SWASH+ website.

Advocacy-for-policy-change focus

From day one the project was designed with a strong advocacy-for-policy-change focus in order to contribute to successful implementation of school WASH throughout Kenya. SWASH+ research directly contributed to the Kenya’s Ministry of Education decision to double funding for school WASH (US$ 840,000/year) with potentially more to come. SWASH+ Research also helped bring national attention to the menstrual hygiene needs of school-aged girls in Kenya, resulting in a government allocation of US$ 3.4 million for sanitary pads for school girls this year.

Now the launch of the new website brings the voices of students, teachers, staff and government officials to a global audience along with years of research and lessons learned.

Partners

The partners that form the SWASH+ consortium are CARE, Emory University, the Great Lakes University of Kisumu, the Government of Kenya, and Water.org. SWASH+ is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Global Water Challenge. The new website is created and hosted by IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre.

HSBC launches US$ 100 million water and sanitation partnership with WaterAid, WWF and Earthwatch

British multinational bank HSBC has launched a new US$ 100 million, five year partnership with WaterAid, WWF and the Earthwatch Institute. The HSBC Water Programme will bring safe water and improved sanitation to over a million people; tackle water risks in river basins; and raise awareness about the global water challenge.

The programme is backed-up by report [1] commissioned by HSBC, which warns that the predicted high-growth rate in several of the world’s most populous river basins may not materialise because of  their unsustainable water consumption . The report also highlights “the powerful economic rationale for improving access to freshwater and sanitation, at a time when total aid for water access and sanitation has actually declined”.

Durban to host 2012 World Toilet Summit

South Africa will host the 12th annual World Toilet Summit in Durban from 3-6 December 2012. The South African Toilet Organization (SATO) is co-organsing this annual World Toilet Organization (WTO) event.

The main theme of the Summit is African Sanitation: Scaling Up – Dignity for All.

Viva con Agua Water Days 2011

This third international festival for clean water is a multi-country fundraising event involving over 70 cultural events in 24 cities in Germany, Switzerland and Spain from 11-22 November 2011.

German NGO Viva con Agua is organising the event in collaboration with Welthungerhilfe, Helvetas and Acción contra el Hambre.

Events in Germany will raise funds for a rural water and sanitation project in Amhara, Ethiopia, implemented by Welthungerhilfe and supported by the German NGO Viva con Agua. Besides concerts and football tournaments, there will be a WASH Social Art Festival in Hamburg.

Bangladesh: BRAC video shows importance of school sanitation for girls

This new 9 minute video shows how BRAC is addressing high absenteeism rates among female students through a water, sanitation and hygiene programme in nearly 3,000 schools across rural Bangladesh. The programme includes menstrual hygiene facilties.

[Female students] have expressed that something so simple like as a sanitary latrine can change their entire educational experience.

The video was directed and edited by Sara Liza Baumann of Old Fan Films.

Nepal: School Sanitation, the neglected development link (video)

Photos from the opening of the photo exhibition. NGO Forum

WaterAid Nepal has produced this video as part of its campaign “School Sanitation: The Neglected Development Link”. Minister for Education and Sports, Gangalal Tuladhar, launched the campaign on 11 August 2011 by opening a photo exhibition at the Nepal Art Council, Babarmahal in Kathmandu.

Web site: WaterAid Nepal

India, Kerala: “Green Army” school hygiene cartoons

Cartoons promoting promoting hygiene and cleanliness on e-toilets. Photo: The Hindu

An Indian e-toilet manufacturer has partnered with a local animation institute to create hygiene promotion cartoons for schools.

Eram Scientific Solutions with Toonz Academy has created the “Green Army” cartoon characters to make students aware of cleanliness and hygiene. The characters were selected based on a competition conducted among the students of the academy.

Crow, the sweeper of nature, keeps the surroundings clean by eating up the organic wastes. Earthworm, known as the plough of farmers, ploughs the soil and keeps it fertile, frog eats up the insects, mushroom absorbs all the organic waste dissolving them in soil and the cat buries its excreta. These soldiers will reach out to various schools along with two more characters Shuchi and Joy, to teach the students about the necessity of keeping the place tidy.

The Green Army premiered at the South Govt Girls Higher Secondary School (GGHSS) in Ernakulam, Kerala, as part of the  suchi@school (Sustainable Comprehensive Hygiene Initiative) project. The project aims to ensure adequate sanitation facilities in all government and government-aided schools in Ernakulam district.

The cartoon characters can be seen on the walls of school model Delight e-toilets supplied to the Ernakulam school by Eram Scientific Solutions.

Related news: India, Kerala: girls’ school in Ernakulam first to get e-toilet, Sanitation Updates, 27 Jul 2011

Related web sites:

• Eram Scientific Solutions
• Toonz Academy
• P. Rajeev - suchi@school project
• IRC - WASH in Schools

Source: Green army all set for action!, The Hindu, 08 Aug 2011

India, Kerala: girls’ school in Ernakulam first to get e-toilet

A government girls’ school in Ernakulam, Kerala, will soon be the first school in the country to get an electronic public toilet.

This is part of the suchi@school (Sustainable Comprehensive Hygiene Initiative) project, an initiative of local CPI (M) Member of Parliament comrade P. Rajeev. The project aims to ensure adequate sanitation facilities – toilets and urinals – in all government and government-aided schools in Ernakulam district.

A number of schools will be fitted with e-toilets, which have automatic doors and will self-clean after each use. Where water is scarce, recycling units using biomembrane reactors will be installed.

There are also plans for installing electronic sanitary napkin disposal systems.

Uganda: free sanitary pad school project

School children (both girls and boys) in Uganda’s northern Amuru and Gulu regions are being taught how to make sanitary pads using cheap, locally available materials. This is one of the measures being undertaken to increase girls’ retention in primary schools.  Only 38 per cent of eligible girls are enrolled in primary schools in Gulu in 2011, against a national rate of 70 per cent.

Pupils take measurements of a cotton cloth to be used to make sanitary pads. Photo: Charles Akena/IRIN

The reusable sanitary pads are made from soft cotton cloth covered with polythene to protect leakage. The pads can  be washed and last several months. Local shops stock sanitary pads that cost on average 5,000 Ugandan shillings (about US$2.50) a packet, which is too expensive for most rural families in northern Uganda.

Besides a lack of sanitary pads, few or no private toilet facilities for girls as well as a shortage of female teachers are said to contribute to adolescent girls’ absenteeism from school.

Development partners are helping to build changing rooms for girls in some schools, training female teachers on guidance and counselling skills and are supporting the production and free distribution of sanitary pads.

At Awich Primary School, where the project was launched in 2010, girls’ enrolment has increased from 268 in 2010 to 310 in 2011.

Source: IRIN, 21 Jul 2011