Clean Hands Promote Sustainability

World Vision’s (WV) Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) Voices of Empowerment (WAVE) project is supported by Australia through Water for Women and aims to improve the health, gender equality, and well-being of people living in the South and Middle Fly districts of Daru Western Province through climate-resilient inclusive WASH services and systems. 

Part of this intervention is to help improve WASH in schools and to educate children on the importance of handwashing and basic hygiene, which have been neglected practices after the global pandemic. Through this program, World Vision now has implemented WASH practices in over 25 schools in the South-Fly District. 

“It was through the involvement of World Vision that we now know more about the importance of hand washing and how it can prevent us from getting sick and potentially missing out on school, says grade seven student Ruth of the school. 

Ruth is part of a student WASH Club entrusted with the duty to look after WASH facilities installed by World Vision in August 2023. Established by WV after implementation, the WASH Club is made up of ten students (five boys and five girls) and their headteacher. 

Like all her peers, Ruth experienced the struggles of using old and unhygienic toilets in previous years, and with that in mind, Headteacher Kose Lavaki came up with the initiative to start a WASH Club dedicated to maintaining the WASH facilities provided by the World Vision team in Daru. 

“Students are very pleased with the new latrines installed in the school grounds. In the past students had to go back home to relieve themselves, and some would even fall sick due to the previous school toilets we had due to its unhygienic state at that time,” says Kose. 

“World Vision did not just install new happy taps and other WASH facilities but they advocated on importance of washing hands after using the toilet, before and after eating which was a benefit for the school and our teachers. 

“These facilities also came with changing rooms for students to use, especially the girls when they are going through their menstrual cycle. In previous times teachers would send children home in situations like this which did have a negative impact on the children academically.

“Though this intervention, the teaching staff and myself came to a realisation that we needed to put aside funding for these facilities under our student welfare account to ensure they are well maintained throughout the school year and can last longer.

“The students are very excited about using the new facilities and since the installation, we have made it our responsibility to maintain them because not only does the school use them but the surrounding community as well and that includes the family members of our students as well.”.

The school is one of five schools in Daru, Urban, to receive support from WV and would always take part in WASH programs implemented by WV.

“The school has been very vocal in terms of developing their school facilities and maintaining them,” says WV WASH Officer, Maureen Gebia. 

“The school board and headteacher were the ones who reached out to WV initially with the intention of improving their school facilities. Even during the initial stages of compiling resources to construct the ablution blocks for the students, the school was happy to assist by providing 50 percent of the materials needed. 

“In phase one of the project, we built rainwater catchment systems to help sustain the school however, it was not possible due to the climatic factors which went against the WASH Climate Resilience Plan. Western province can experience harsh wet and dry seasons in a year, sometimes the dry season can go on for more than 4 months in a year. 

“Therefore, we had to come up with a better approach to create a sustainable climate-resilient school community for the students, teaching staff and the surrounding community as well. 

“The community previously did not understand the importance of regular handwashing, prior to our intervention and so by teaching students to normalize handwashing and basic hygiene, the community began to experience a positive transformation. 

“The school has been vocal in terms of promoting a clean, safe and healthy sustainable environment for the school and has been one of the front liners when it came to global moments like Global Hand Washing Day. 

“For such significant events, WV donates hygiene kits to schools and provides advocacy with regards to handwashing, menstrual hygiene management and maintaining a safe and sustainable community for all,” Maureen added. 

World Vision, supported by Australia through Water for Women, continues to respond to the communities in need. With a plan of implementing WASH in all schools in the province, WV aims to accomplish more by providing facilities that can both help the community and withstand climatic factors which still exist in the province.