Hand Wash Project

Hand Wash Project

Project Duration

January 2023 - December 2023

Donor / Partner

MBM

Location

11 districts of Bangladesh (JAAGO Schools) - Dhaka, Chattogram, Rajshahi, Dinajpur, Gaibandha, Madaripur, Rangpur, Hobigonj, Cox’s Bazar, Bandarban

Target Group

Total Beneficiary

Direct - Students, Volunteers, Teachers School committee members.
Indirect - Parents, Community members

Rationale

With the continuous spread of Covid 19 and other deadly and infectious disease in the recent times, handwashing, proper sanitation, and maintaining a high level of hygiene are more important than ever. Water and sanitation access remains a challenge in hard-to-reach areas such as hilly regions, riverine islands (chars), swamp (beels and haors) and tea gardens; and for excluded or marginalized groups such as urban slum and pavement dwellers. The country’s low-lying topography makes the nation highly susceptible to seasonal flooding that contaminates water sources and leaves millions of people with deplorable sanitary conditions. Arsenic contamination across the country puts over 20 million people at risk each year.

To reach Sustainable Development Goal 6, which aims to ensure clean water and sanitation for all, it is of the utmost significance to improve water and sanitation facilities and stop open defecation practices. Inadequate and lack of sanitation are closely related to diarrheal diseases such as cholera, typhoid, rotavirus, hepatitis, and other worm infestation. Human or animal wastes which contain pathogens like bacteria and virus can easily contaminate drinking water. It may also be polluted with chemical and physical impurities that are harmful to human health. That is why it is critical to obtain drinking water from an improved sources in order to minimize the transmission and effect of diarrhoea and other water borne diseases.

One of the most effective strategies for increasing pandemic and disease preparedness, especially in resource-constrained settings, is investing in core public health infrastructure, including water and sanitation systems. Good WASH and waste management practices, that are consistently applied, serve as barriers to human-to-human transmission of different fatal disease including COVID-19 virus in homes, communities, health care facilities, schools, and other public spaces. Thus, more people must be made more aware of the importance of basic hygiene practices like washing hands properly with soap and water to avoid the risk of getting infected. To achieve the SDG 6 goal by 2030, it is necessary to accelerate efforts in ensuring improved drinking water sanitation facilities for all citizens.

Goal

To increase the level of knowledge and awareness of the students, teachers, and community members on the fundamental concepts of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) as well as promote the access of WASH facilities.

Objective

  1. To provide access to WASH facilities to the students of JAAGO Foundation schools and community members
  2. To create awareness of WASH facilities and related issues through community mobilization

Activity Details

Activity 1: Training and capacity building of the students, teachers, and youth volunteers

To ensure adequate hygiene and sanitation, it is utmost important to educate and create awareness among the people on the basic concepts and significance of WASH and other related issues. In order to do so, training will be provided to the volunteers, teachers, students and school committee members. The following process will be followed to carry out the training sessions –

1.1 – Module development for the training:

The training module on WASH has been developed and contextualized by JAAGO Foundaiton as per the location, time, and requirements of the participants. The module of the training will be catered considering the varying age group and diverse sectors and backgrounds of people.

1.2 – Capacity building of the teachers and youth volunteers

Capacity building training will be conducted to train the local youth volunteers and teachers of JAAGO on WASH and its related issues. 7 volunteers from each district will participate in the training. Through the training the participants will be acquainted with an in-depth knowledge on WASH environment design, F- diagram, steps of handwash, importance of basic sanitation and hygiene, the different types of wash sanitation and hygiene, ideal source of water, optimum sanitation system, water-borne diseases, means of transmissions of diseases and ways to prevent them. The capacity building training will help the teachers and youth volunteers to further train and sensitize the students at the schools and the community people in their respective communities.

1.3 – WASH related capacity building of the students

After receiving the capacity building training, the trained teachers will then educate the students on WASH and the significance of maintaining good hygiene and sanitation. The students will be able to learn about the basic concepts of WASH, F-diagram, 7 steps of hand washing and diseases and other relevant issue. The teachers will demonstrate the basics of WASH and encourage the students to follow them on their daily life.

1.4 – Orientation of the Caretaker, Operation and Maintenance Committee

The caretaker, operation, and maintenance committee members responsible for maintaining the WASH infrastructure will be orientated on the basics of WASH. They will learn about the importance of having good hygiene, sanitation as well as ensure the proper maintenance and operation of the WASH infrastructures in the school. Moreover, the caretaker, operation and maintenance committee members will be included in the designing, maintenance, and monitoring system of the WASH schemes of the schools.

Activity 2: Community Sensitization

The second part of the project aims to reach a wider audience through community mobilization. The parents of the students and other community members of the respective areas will be enlightened on the WASH issues.

2.1 – Parents sensitization on WASH issues

The parents of the students will be educated and made aware by the teachers of the need of maintaining appropriate standards of hygiene and sanitation in their home. This will allow the parents to have a fundamental understanding of hand hygiene, safety, and WASH protocols. Moreover, the parents will be motivated to follow and encourage their family members to also adopt WASH protocols.

2.2 – Community awareness programme

For spreading awareness within the local community, the trained volunteers will intervene in the communities to connect and empower the community people in order to address issues relating to safe drinking water, hygiene and sanitation. Throughout the year, multiple community awareness programme will be conducted to raise awareness on WASH issues and problems and consequences of neglecting it. The volunteers will visit high density areas of different neighbourhoods, shops, markets, fairs and communicate with the community member and encourage them to have safe drinking water and maintain proper hygiene, and sanitation. Banners and festoons will be placed in high eyelevel areas and leaflets will be distributed among the community members.

Activity 3 – WASH Schemes

In order to provide access to pure drinking water and ensure the maintenance of proper hygiene and sanitation in the school environment, WASH infrastructure and services will be implemented.

3.1: Establishments of safe water drinking filtration system

Safe drinking water is one of the most important aspects of WASH protocol. To ensure the access of safe drinking water to the students, 1 submersible water pump for Bandarban School. 1 tube well for the Madaripur School and 11 water filtration system will be established JAAGO Foundation schools.

3.2: Safe drinking water supply for communities

In order to provide safe drinking water to the community members as well, a safe drinking water line will be constructed outside the school premises. As a result, the community members of the area will have access to safe and purified drinking water which will play a vital role in maintaining good health.

3.3: Renovation of Toilet

Proper sanitation facilities promote health by ensuring the proper disposal of waste, preventing contamination of environment, and reducing risks of being affected by diseases. Through this project, in all the 11 district schools of JAAGO the existing toilets will be renovated, and new washrooms/toilets will be constructed to accommodate the requirements of the schools. Gender friendly toilets will be ensured while constructing them.

3.5 – Renovation of Handwashing Stations

With the current pandemic situation, the need for proper hand washing has seemed to reach a new level of importance. The hand washing stations will be renovated and constructed at various locations across the school to promote regular hand washing by the children. This is being done to maintain proper hygiene and hand washing in order to prevent the transmission of any infectious diseases including the Covid 19.

3.6 – Reusable sanitary napkin dispenser

A biodegradable and reusable sanitary napkin dispenser will be established in each of the schools to reduce the absence or dropouts from school of adolescent girls due to menstruation. The lack of easy access to sanitary napkins, especially in the rural and hard to reach areas, causes the girls to feel discomfort and miss school which hampers their education. The supply of sanitary napkins at school will encourage the girl students to focus more on their health and hygiene. In each school, 2 reusable sanitary napkin dispensers will be installed so that the girls can have quick and easy access to them whenever necessary.

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