School Campaigns (WU)

Today, in many countries, students suffer from non-existent or insufficient water supply, sanitation and hand washing facilities; toilets that are not adapted to the needs of children, in particular girls; broken, dirty and unsafe facilities; non-existent or irrelevant health and hygiene education for children and dirty classrooms and school compounds (MOOIJMAN et al. 2010). Besides health impacts and the spread of diseases and intestinal parasites (see also health and hygiene issues), none of these conditions make learning pleasurable or easy. In the long term, educational achievement is one of the most important determinants of health, life expectancy, economic productivity, and the wellbeing of future generations. Safe water to drink, water and soap to wash hands, and clean and private toilets make healthy, child-friendly schools, and healthy schools make healthy children (NAGPAL 2010).

Schools present an opportunity to reach thousands of children with safe water and hygiene and health messages (NAGPAL 2010). They provide unique opportunities for awareness raising as they bring large groups of people together for learning purposes and usually have systems for production and dissemination of educational material (SCHAAP and VAN STEENBERGEN 2001). Schools can also provide an entry point to the community as a whole, for example, the introduction of latrines and hygiene-education at schools, for example by using the CHAST-approach, may trigger the development of improved hygiene norms in the household, because children take back to their families concepts and practices on water and sanitation.

The provision of safe water and sanitation facilities in schools is a first step towards a healthy physical learning environment benefiting both learning and health (SNEL 2003). However, the mere provision of facilities does not make them sustainable or produce the desired impact. It is the use of facilities and the related appropriate behaviours of people that provide benefits for the community. In schools, education aims to promote those practices that will help prevent water and sanitation-related diseases as well as promoting the wise use of water and favourable hygiene behaviour in the future generation of adults. The combination of adequate facilities, correct behavioural practices and education is meant to have a positive impact on the health and hygiene conditions of the community as a whole, both now and in the future. The success of a school hygiene programme is therefore not determined only by the number of latrines constructed and the number of hand pumps installed or water connexions built. Nor is the success of a programme determined simply by what children know (SNEL 2003). A good School Campaign will find an optimal combination of different objectives and a balance between provision of safe water and sanitation facilities, and educational, behavioural and promotional aspects such as including the issue in the schools curriculum (SCHAAP and VAN STEENBERGEN 2001).

In the school, participation in planning is not only related to planning construction, but also to maintenance, use and management (IRC 2007). Those directly concerned are teachers, girl and boy students, school heads, parents, the school management committee and parent organisations. In many programmes, health workers, other local government workers, and members of NGOs and community-based organisations are also involved. Participation is important because it can help ensure that facilities are used and maintained and new insights are acquired (IRC 2007). Participation in decisions also makes children and adults more proud of and responsible for what they have created. Community involvement may enable a programme to have a broader impact. It is hoped that a school campaign will initiate a process of passing on information and behavioural changes from school to household to community, or, in other words, from students to siblings, friends and neighbours (IRC 2007). School children may be involved in activities at the community level, for instance collecting environmental data, surveying homes, counting latrines and distributing materials. Their involvement may also go one step further, to the promotion of community sanitation and hygiene (see also young people as promoters).

In addition to the community-based participation, the implementation of school programmes requires support at regional (or national) level. Experiences have shown that only a small number of headmasters will have the time and the capacity to develop a schools programme without the support from the intermediate level (IRC 2007). Those headmasters and teachers working in remote areas need support in particular. At district/regional level, it is important to dedicate a large proportion of available resources to the support of teachers and to the continuous capacity building of regional staff, teachers and headmasters. There is a need for regular follow up through a supervisory system and periodic visits to schools. This enables support and supervision of the teachers in their implementation of sound education, the effective operation and maintenance of the facilities, and the involvement of and outreach to communities. The provision of logistical support is therefore essential, as well as the distribution of sufficient teaching materials (IRC 2007).

Possible steps — some of which are carried out at the same time — for implementing a school campaign are described below (adapted from MOOIJMAN et al. 2010; IRC 2007):

Step 1 — Explore

• Make a plan of your activities
• Baseline data collection: Useful for planning at the beginning of the programme and monitoring at later stages. The purpose of a baseline study is to build on current strengths and get information to make plans that will prevent or solve problems. Topics for a baseline study include: current situation concerning water, toilets, urinals, capacity, curriculum and teaching, community
• Form a Village Education Committee (VEC)
• Raise awareness (see PPT) among community members
• Organise community contribution
• Explore funding sources

Step 2 — Decide

• Discuss and agree on hardware and software options, preferably in consultation with children and teachers

Step 3 — Implement Software and Hardware

• Train teachers and head teachers
• Train other community people (VEC, water committees, health workers, etc.)
• Develop/ search hygiene/ sanitation/ water education materials
• Keep school compounds and classrooms clean
• Adapt and test training materials and teaching aids in classes
• Calculate bill of quantities and select contractor/ supplier for hardware
• Agree on specifications and quality checks and who will certify
• Organise construction of the facilities; community inputs
• Organise (skilled) help for construction
• Check construction quality and timelines

Step 4 — Ensure Sustainability

• Organise children to collect water, filling tanks and receptacles so that enough water is always available at all times
• Organise children to maintain and clean toilets, water points, school grounds
• Teach children proper use of toilets and hand washing
• Monitor use of the toilets
• Do repairs and replacements in schools
• Solve problems when the school facilities are not maintained or break down
• Organise ongoing learning activities in classrooms
• Organise learning & communication activities outside the classroom: camps, campaigns, etc.
• Form groups or clubs of pupils in their school
• Organise various activities periodically to collect funds for activities and repairs
• Cover recurrent expenditures for soap, repairs, etc.
• Organise refresher training each year

A school campaign does not end when the water and sanitation facilities have been constructed. The period following construction usually receives too little attention from programme planners and implementers, and continuous inputs are needed to ensure sustainability. It is often assumed that national and local governments take responsibility for a healthy school environment. However, it is often necessary to rely on students, teachers, parents and community groups for the improvement of the situation at schools, including the operation and maintenance of school facilities. To prevent rapid run-down of facilities, different kinds of maintenance are necessary (SNEL 2003):

• Upkeep; cleaning and maintenance activities to be done by teachers, children and other users on a regular basis.
• Minor repairs and preventive maintenance such as greasing, bolts, fixing taps, cracks, and broken doors, once a week at least.
• Major repairs such as the repairs that cannot be done by children, teachers or their parents. They can be referred to the village mechanic, a block mechanic or engineering divisions.

To ensure school sanitation programmes are sustainable, schools and communities should cover all operation and maintenance costs. Contributions can be in the form of materials, labour, cash or all three. Schools can join hands with families and communities to raise money for the construction and to organise the operation and maintenance of the facilities. Some possible funding options include (IRC 2007):

• Contributions from parents
• Donations
• Using the general school maintenance budget
• Organisation of income-generating activities

Further ideas for funding possibilities can be found here.

Child-friendly facilities are easy and pleasant for children to use. Some things to take into account are (IRC 2007):

• Strength needed to use the pump or to open taps
• Toilets and urinals need to be well-ventilated
• Height of doorknobs and locks of latrines
• Posters showing how to use the facilities, maybe with cartoons
• Little painted figures in the facilities to train aiming
• Painted walls to make the facilities an interesting place

In addition, there are things to consider when selecting the location for toilets and urinals (IRC 2007):

Children must feel safe and comfortable when visiting the toilets or water points. They must not feel that they will be teased by other children or molested. Older girls in particular need privacy when entering and using facilities. The accessibility of toilets and taps must be assured even after heavy rains. Hand washing facilities should be located near toilets so that children will be more likely to wash hands after defecating. Toilets must be located away from and downhill from drinking water facilities.

"In Baijalpur village in Kapilvastu, Nepal, school children lead the community sanitation drive. In a country where only 39% of the population have access to a toilet, Baijalpur village is setting an example: today, every home in the village has a latrine. UNICEF and the Water Supply and Sanitation Sub Divisional Office (WSSDO) in Kapilvastu launched the School-Led Total Sanitation (SLTS) project in 2005 and trained the teachers and initially offered to provide technical support. Spearheading this community drive in sanitation and hygiene is a band of school children and teachers of the Shree Pancha Primary School. After the children received training from their teachers, they began to campaign and educate their often-illiterate parents and neighbours about the benefits of constructing a latrine and keeping their community clean. Within a year of beginning the School-Led Total Sanitation programme, the residents of Baijalpur had achieved the goal of constructing a latrine in all of the 314 homes" (MOOIJMAN et al. 2010).