Sanitation,
Hygiene,
Health
One of the best ways to improve health in developing nations is to focus on sanitation and hygiene at the individual level.
The original latrines at SMG, prior to T.H.R.I.V.E. Foundation’s involvement
The new set of latrines, properly dug and lined by professionals.
This is the first latrine at Saint Maria Gorretti, hand-dug by the villagers, constructed of hand-made bricks, with an improvised washing station the girl is using. This served for nearly ten years, but by the end, with 300 children, it was truly insufficient.
One of our earliest projects was the construction of a new set of latrines with properly lined pits. We built separate facilities for boys and girls, with four stalls in each, plus two shower rooms on the right.
Rainwater directed to the tank provides the water for hand washing stations and the showers. The outdoor latrines were recently upgraded with tile flooring to improve the sanitation of these facilities.
In the two story main classroom building, separate bathrooms for the boys and girls added modernized stalls and urinals.
These new bathroom facilities utilize running water, once a rarity, for the toilets, urinals, and sinks, further improving the sanitation conditions at Saint Maria Goretti for all students.
These were among the first bathrooms with running water in the entire village!
The young women of SMG receiving their menstrual pad kits.
But even with the addition of the bathrooms in the school building, there is a great need for additional capacity because the student body doubled quickly to the 600 now in the school. This is one of the needed facilities that will be built as part of the Capital Campaign that is currently underway.
Improving the students’ hygiene is another ongoing initiative. To this end, SMG again partnered with Wells of Life on its reusable menstrual pads for girls and women. Often, girls missed valuable classroom days when they had their menstrual periods. This has been a major hurdle for girls in getting a good education. Wells of Life distributed reusable menstrual pads to the girls, and instructed them in proper feminine hygiene.
This is a real breakthrough for girls in realizing their educational goals!
“Allow me to say thanks for having promoted our sanitation by constructing for us a pit latrine. Really, we are so happy!”
With fresh water now readily available at the school, teachers instruct the children in the importance of washing their hands frequently, to prevent the spread of germs and protect their health and that of those around them.
Longer term, we hope to engage the villagers in a comprehensive, door to door campaign of instruction in improved sanitation and hygiene practices around the home, so that the entire community is taken to a whole new level of health.
Some of the children have written us “thank you” letters over time. Here, Babirye Benah Maria says:
"Let me take this opportunity to thank you for all the things you have donated to our school, for example: sanitation projects and many others."
And, from one of the letters of School Administrator Mrs. Nalumansi Mary:
Included in this program would be instruction and assistance in installing cleaning burning, fuel efficient, low cost, wood burning stoves, to reduce indoor smoke and particulate matter. Cleaner cooking is important because current practices make them the biggest single source of poor health in Africa.
T.H.R.I.V.E. Foundation will introduce cleaner cooking practices on the campus when the new outdoor kitchen is built, as part of the Capital Campaign.