Reveling building 100 toilets at primary schools in Kilifi.
How grateful are you to have a reliable toilet every time you felt the need to answer the call of nature. Some place clean. Not crowded. With water, a place to wash your hands afterwards, with antiseptic soap, and having no fear of it collapsing. Now imagine when you were in primary school and how not having this may have affected your learning, health and socio-emotional development. Toilets form a key component of education in schools. People send their children to schools hoping they have access to that amenity too. But have you ever thought to ask yourself the kind of toilet your child uses at school, if any. Lack of appropriate toilet facilities in many Kenyan schools has seen children at a risk of dropping out, having poor concentration in class, getting infections, to mention but a few.
Rotary Club (RC) of Kilifi’s Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) committee, since 2012, has been on a constant look out for schools that were significantly below the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended ratio for toilets per children (1:30 for boys and 1:25 for girls). WASH forms one of the cornerstones for RC Kilifi service activities to its community. Projects done to address this have also included training in health and hygiene accompanied with appropriate water harvesting equipment and sanitary towel distribution.
On the 3rd and 4th day of October 2019, we were glad to hold a handing over ceremony opening up 40 toilets at Dera Tumaini (26) and Vitsapuni (14) primary schools. The children performed an array of acts to express this gratitude alike. The County Government’s good will and support are appreciated as they also provided user-friendly reusable storage water bags for the children of these schools to benefit from. As of today, we are gratified by how far we have come. A total of 100 toilet blocks constructed in Kilifi County (Kilifi North and Ganze subcounites) for primary schools! Still going strong!
“Our approach is holistic,” RC Kilifi WASH committee chair Rotarian Kate Crowley said, “and we take into account the resources, especially water availability, in the local area. The community is grateful to our partners over the years including RC Vinings (GA, USA D6900), RC Darien (CT, USA D7980), RC Eynsham (D1090) and RC Aylsham (D1080)”. We also appreciate the presence of the County Government representatives, Rotarians, Rotaractors and friends who shared in this milestone. For us, it is always about service above self, almost as important as access to water sanitation and hygiene is to our community.
