Water and Sanitation Service Projects in Kenya

Oct 04, 2018 7:15 AM
Peter Lattey
Water and Sanitation Service Projects in Kenya

WASH IN SCHOOLS IN MIGORI KENYA

Since 2013 the Rotary club of Downtown Los Angeles has been the international sponsor for three grants from the Rotary Foundation to provide WASH (Water,  Sanitation & Health) to 20 schools with over 12,000 students and 2 clinics in Migori, Kenya. We have done this in partnership with other Rotary clubs in Los Angeles, Kenya, Texas, Florida, Montreal, Australia and Great Britain and with a bequest from the estate of Dr. Laura Chick.  We have spent over $150,000 providing clean water, improved latrines and distributing sanitary pads to the girls in the schools.  We have also established a small, women owned coop to make reusable sanitary pads in Migori.

We are currently raising funds for the 4th project to provide WASH in 7 schools with about 3,500 students. For this project we will again be partnering with the Rotary Club of Suna Migori.  All of the schools are community schools not private schools.  In many cases the schools have been physically constructed by the local community.  They all have a Board comprised of local citizens that oversees and supports the administration of the school. This is important for the sustainability of the projects.

The budget for the seven schools will be about US$55,000.

Rotarian Peter Lattey visited the schools in September 2018 to meet with the school staff and boards and to finalize the details of what needs to be done at each school.

 

THE PROJECT

There are several parts to this project at each school.

  • a stable supply of clean water using rainwater harvesting by gutters and tanks
  • enough and suitable microflush toilets  
  • reusable sanitary pads for the girls along with menstrual management education,
  • Water and Sanitation education for the teachers and students.

 

Clean Water

This part of Kenya gets plenty of rain twice a year and the groundwater is often very deep and sometimes contaminated. The most economical solutions to the water issue at the schools is to collect rainwater from the iron roofs of the schools and store it in above ground tanks. Schools will receive roof gutters and two 10,000 liter tanks.

Toilets

For the last projects, we have provided a two door, handicapped accessible pit latrine at each school.  For this grant we are improving on that by building Microflush toilets. This toilet uses the small amount of water from handwashing to flush the toilet and vermiculture (worms) to produce composted manure for the garden. These toilets have a built in handwash station as part of the construction. This encourages good hygiene.  They are also handicapped accessible which removes the stigma of having a “special” toilet for students or teachers with mobility issues.

The building of the microflush toilets is also a community development benefit.  Local men and women will be trained in the construction of them. After they have built the units at our schools, they will be able to earn money building them for private individuals and other institutions.

Menstrual Hygiene management

The high dropout rate for girls as they move from primary to secondary school is a big issue in Kenya. One of the key ways to reduce this dropout rate is through education for menstrual hygiene management and distribution of sanitary pads.

We will be partnering with Beyond Water, a Kenya based NGO through their The Girl Project, to provide Menstrual and hygiene training at each school. 

Water & Sanitation Education

We will be partnering with Beyond Water, a Kenya based NGO through their The Girl Project.  They will train the teachers to teach the students and all of the students with a half-day fun workshop.  This will be for boys and girls. This will be combined with the menstrual hygiene training for the older girls.

COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT

We require that the school assist during the planning and construction.  The school provides the local bricks for the latrine, the materials for the base of the tanks and unskilled labour.  Depending on the availability of older boys and girls, the students also pitch in digging trenches, moving base material, etc.

To see what this project means to the children in Migori, take a look at the video on Youtube.    www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ad54H49MsZU    or search on Youtube for Peter Lattey Rotary water.