According to the World Health Organization, water coverage in Kenya is only 45 percent, and sanitation coverage is 71 percent. In the Nakuru province, where Lifewater is working, the poverty level is 54 percent and coverage is lower. Lack of an adequate supply of safe water is identified as the major constraint of development in the region.

Nakuru, Kenya, is a city of about 300,000 located in the country’s Rift Valley Province. Since the Kenyan government declared free primary education for all children in 2006, schools in the urban and peri-urban areas of Nakuru have experienced dramatic growth in enrollment; average classroom sizes have ballooned from 35 to 80 students. While this is good news, the unintended consequence is that schools are grappling to respond to this influx of students. In many cases, basic needs at the schools are not met. Water and sanitation infrastructures, many insufficient before, have now been stretched to the breaking point.

In addition to the obvious serious health consequences, the lack of safe water and sanitation poses difficult challenges for women and girls. For example, at Ndarugu Primary School, 27 female teachers share a single latrine, and more than 700 female students share a mere 8 latrines. This means 88 students per latrine, more than three times the Kenyan Government standard of 25 girls per latrine. This causes long lines and unsanitary latrine conditions, which discourage girls from using them--they either choose to return to open defecation or stay home from school, especially during menstruation.

 

Lifewater is working with its in-country partner to provide safe water and the dignity of a latrine to at least 2,737 students.

To date, we have accomplished the following work at Muslim Primary School:

•  Installing a 10,000-gallon water storage tank
• Constructing 16 latrines and handwashing stations for the girls
• Training 21 teachers, community health workers, and community leaders in Lifewater’s hygiene curriculum designed for primary schools

Lifewater continues to carry out the following work at Kimathi Primary School:

•  Installing the 10,000-gallon water storage tank
• Constructing 10 latrines for girls, 10 latrines for boys, and 2 latrines for teachers
  
• Providing handwashing stations for all the latrines
• Training more students and teachers to properly use and maintain the facilities

Next, Lifewater will break ground on the WASH improvements scheduled for St. Paul's Primary School.

Your support is vital to the success of this project! With the funds raised so far, nearly 1,500 schoolchildren as well as families in the community now have reliable access to water. They will soon be equipped with the education and supplies necessary for safe hygiene and sanitation.

$43 - provides one primary school student with reliable access to water, adequate sanitation, and effective hygiene (WASH)

$120 - allows one classroom of eighty students to receive WASH training and the tools to help become a change-makers for WASH in their community

$197 - gives one school access to permanent handwashing stations which will drastically help reduce the spread of disease

Please contribute to this important work! If you would like to donate to this project specifically, please indicate "Nakuru Schools" in the comments section of the donation page. Thank you for helping to make a difference for kids in Kenya!

Winter 2012 - Field Trainers Educate About WASH

A group of Lifewater field trainers traveled to Kenya in January to facilitate an advanced hygiene training course as part of the MWAMA project. The project focuses on latrine construction and WASH trainings, as well as the construction of large water cisterns to hold water during drought periods.

While many people in developed nations may think hygiene and sanitation are inherent knowledge, this belief is far from true. The advancement of basic sanitation and hygiene can have a substantial impact on an entire community. Judy Woods was one of Lifewater's field trainers during the recent trip to Kenya and expressed how "the field visits affirmed the need. It was encouraging to hear the repots from the schools saying disease is down, attendance is up, and school performance is up just because they are practicing WASH behaviors.

For many school children, the water cisterns provided a clean and reliable water source for the first time in their lives. Darci Grindheim, a Lifewater field trainer, experienced "the obvious degree of happiness in the children, and the impact on the family." She was appreciative of the fact that "students, parents, and teachers alike saw the implementation of WASH as a demonstration of cooperation with the Creator God, stewardship of His resources, and an expression of love for our fellow man. Spreading the gospel was important, but so was spreading the good news of WASH!" Darci "witnessed that Lifewater partners with people and organizations who are ready and eager to change, to be stewards of God's creation and resources, and to love His people."

Greg Bachman, another Lifewater field trainer, walked away from his Kenya trip with the confidence that the children he met and talked to about WASH practices "now have the knowledge and understand the correlation with safe water and what if feels like not to be sick. They will pass it on."                                        

 

Spring 2011 - Students are Retaining Lifesaving Hygiene Behaviors

We continue to recieve positive feedback and comments from students and teachers at the Nakuru schools where Lifewater is working.

Sylvia Nkirote, Kimathi School
“It is good to be clean because if you are not clean you will be affected by many diseases like waterborne diseases. I have to be clean first, so others can follow my example. (At home) I tell them that if you wash your hands without soap, they are not clean. They are washing their hands now.

(About teaching her younger siblings) “I told them, it is good to use soap when washing your hands and dry them with a clean towel. Now they wash their hands. Sometimes my younger brother used to complain that he had headaches and that was because of Typhoid. In this last year he hasn’t complained."

Joseph Ndegwa, 8th grader at Kimathi School
“I have learned how to be clean. I have to be clean to concentrate in class and prevent waterborne diseases. I learned to use the water from the well because when you drink contaminated water, many people get waterborne diseases. When we pollute the water, we can spread many diseases and the population will decrease, so we have to keep our water clean.”

(About teaching his siblings) “At first I was afraid that they would not listen to me, but they did.”

Joseph Kerosi, teacher and Health Club instructor at Uhuru School, trained by Lifewater
“When we started health club we had no water, now we have water and now when we’re teaching them to “drink safe water” children are so excited. We did the lesson teaching about safe and unsafe water sources and the students told me ‘teacher, we drink this water at home!’ (referring to unsafe water sources) so we have the opportunity to explain why the water is unsafe. This is especially important now during this dry spell there is no safe water for students at hom because the pipes are dry. People are going so far to fetch water so it might be unsafe. We are emphasizing treating water and boiling water to make unsafe water safe for drinking.

We have a new water tank and the children are so excited about the curriculum, ‘Drink, drink safe water’ because now they can see it. They can see the clean water. We showed them four kinds of water like Lifewater taught us, three unsafe and one safe, and the children said about the dirty water, ‘That’s the water we drink at home’. So, we tell them now their water at home should be treated. We emphasize boiling. We teach the students and then they go home and tell their parents. When we were registering standard eight students recently, a parent told me ‘my child has told me, I must boil water’. She asked me why and I told her that it kills germs and things that you cannot see in the water. We had an 8th grade parent meeting last week and one of the mothers told me that her child went home and told her she had to start boiling the water."

(About how he will measure success of the health club) “When the students go to eat, we’d like to see how they handle food and whether they wash their hands before eating. Right now about 35% of the whole school washes their hands before eating while about 80% of the health club students do.”  

Winter 2011 - Witnessing the Changes

Lifewater's Kenya project coordinator recently visited 10 of the schools where Lifewater has been implementing comprehensive WASH projects. Students, faculty, and school grounds have been transformed! Below are comments from students and faculty at the three schools in Nakuru:

 

Damaris Njeri, 8th grader at Kimathi School, 13 years old
“I learned that when you are using water you must close it to conserve it because, if you don’t, the water will dry up. Then you won’t have water for drinking and washing your hands. I have been able to teach other students how to be clean. If you are clean, you won’t have diseases like diarrhea or cholera that will harm your body.

"These [water] tanks and toilets have helped us so much, because [now] we don’t contaminate the water. Also, we can water the plants and trees and drink safe water. The difference is, before, there was no water. We were so dusty, and we couldn’t concentrate. I have improved in class.

“I taught my siblings that it is good to clean your body everyday, because cleanliness is next to godliness. Before they cleaned their bodies every other day. When they were not cleaning their body, they would handle food and would have stomach pain. My mother spent a lot of money on medicine. Now, in a year, my siblings were only taken to the doctor to be checked. Before, every month, we would go twice because stomach pain and diarrhea. Now there is no diarrhea in my home.”

Margaret Jajualoh, teacher and school Health Club instructor at Kimathi school, trained by Lifewater
When asked what she is most proud of, Margaret replied,

“I looked at the pupils that were least clean to join the health club. Now they are all clean and healthy. If I’d taken only the clean pupils, then the health club wouldn’t have made an impact. These students have come to realize the importance of safe water and especially the importance of [cleaning] drinking containers.

"Classes are now clean. The compound used to be dirty and have trash, but now in the health club we taught them to keep the environment clean. A time ago, many children were sharing one container, but now each child has their own bottle from home and refills from the tap. Only about half the students have water at their homes.

"We teach things like how to clean teeth. We demonstrated how to make a toothbrush and how to brush teeth. We demonstrate in the classes how to wash and not to share containers. The students are proud and excited to teach other students. We want the students to do these things on their own so that they do it at home, not just in school. Parents have come by and said they’ve been taught by the students.

"Poverty in the homes may not allow students to have wash basins, soap, or clean latrines. As teachers we buy soap for them if we have to."

Rose Warui, teacher and school health club instructor at Muslim Primary School

When asked how the new girls latrines were affecting the school, Rose replied,

“Students are now noticing the cleanliness [of the new girls' latrines] and smell of the [boys' yet-to-be-improved] toilets. There is change. Now the lower primary students are washing their hands. They learned from the upper primary students. The students are using soap. They even brought their own tissue paper. Young students used to relieve themselves in the classroom. It happened everyday. They didn’t want to go to the [broken down] latrine. Now that doesn’t happen, especially for girls. It sometimes happens with boys because they don’t have enough latrines, and they are old.”

Note: Lifewater is completing the new latrines for the boys this year.

 

Fall 2010 - More Schools Gain Safe Water

Songs of celebration and dances of thanksgiving created a joyful atmosphere at Muslim Primary School in Nakuru, Kenya at their official opening of the 16 new latrines for girls, the 5 handwashing stations, and the 10,000 gallon water tank.  Prior to the new water tank, Muslim School only had water when the city pipes were working, approximately 1-2 times per week. Accompanying these water and sanitation facilities, Lifewater International staff and volunteers trained 21 primary school teachers, community health workers, and community leaders in a hygiene curriculum designed to impact primary school students.
                                                                                                                
Following the opening ceremony at Muslim Primary School, groundbreaking began at Kimathi Primary School where Lifewater  and our Kenyan partner organization will construct 10 new latrines for girls, 10 latrines for boys, 2 latrines for teachers, and a 10,000 gallon water tank in addition to handwashing stations. A teacher from Kimathi participated in Lifewater’s hygiene training and is already starting a health club at the school.

Lifewater's Kenyan partner is installing a 10,000 gallon water tank at Kimathi Primary School. Handwashing stations and latrines are also being construted. A teacher from Kimathi school attended a Lifewater hygiene training and started a health club at the   school. The health club will educate students and their families on important practices that will allow them to take full advantage of their new water and sanitation resources.

Summer 2010 - School Water Tanks for a Reliable Water Supply

 

A 10,000 gallon water tank was recently completed at the Muslim Primary school. This will provide 1,346 students and teachers with safe water. A girls’ latrine with 16 doors is also nearly finished at this school.

(click photo for more)

 

 

Spring 2010 - School Kids Dream Big with WASH

Kenya's recent establishment of free primary school education caused class sizes to burgeon from an average of thirty-five to eight-five students! While this is wonderful news in terms of harnessing and nurturing children's potential, it has stressed most schools' already destitute water and sanitary infrastructure. Without WASH, the schools become breeding grounds for disease, high teacher turn-over, open defecation, dehydration, and violence and humiliation towards girls during their menstruation. (Without latrines to provide privacy and safety, girls must care for their needs in the surrounding bushes.)

Over the last several months, construction at The Muslim Primary School in Nakuru, Kenya has included 16 new latrines for girls. A 10,000 gallon water tank is also in the midst of construction to address the unreliable and contaminated city water piped in. Once in place, the school’s water supply will be dependable and filtered. As the work continues to progress, schoolteachers and administrators are increasingly optimistic about providing a healthier work environment. Students who are hydrated and safe from shame or fear when going to the bathroom are able to focus and thrive.

Lifewater's work in Kisumu, Kenya marks another vital establishment of WASH in schools: peer education and promotion. Lifewater, together with our in-country partner and school administrators, have been forming health clubs in schools to raise up WASH leaders amongst the students. Students such as Rose Anyango Kita are vital agents for promoting life-saving hygiene knowledge to their peers and villages, influencing behavioral changes to incorporate handwashing and the use of new latrines. Since her participation in the health club, Rose’s career ambition has been to become a health worker.

While much exciting work awaits us in the months ahead, the progress thus far has deeply encouraged the Lifewater team. Thank you to all our donors for your financial support and prayers. By this, we have been able to bless our partners, who in turn are blessing their local communities.

Please pray for:
God to facilitate excellent communication with our partner; wisdom and guidance in planning the construction for the next schools.

 

Spring 2009 - Kids are Realizing their Dreams

Below is the story of how WASH is changing Rose’s life, one of the children served through Lifewater International’s WASH in schools program.

Rose is a twelve-year old girl in rural Kenya. The eldest child in a family of seven, she is happy and active despite problems with asthma. She is good at drama, storytelling, singing, and helping her family with chores, one of which is tending the family’s cattle.

Before Lifewater International’s in-country partner began work, Rose’s school did not have drinking water. Children had to bring water from home, and during school hours the only water source was a distant contaminated well. There was only one latrine for all five hundred students, and children had to stand in a long line to use it. Many children would use the surrounding fields instead.

Since there was little water and no one had been taught good hygiene, students rarely washed their hands. They often missed days of classes due to water-related diseases. Because of the lack of hygienic latrines, the majority of adolescent girls missed school during their monthly periods (rather than suffer embarrassment and the danger of assault when attending to their needs in the open fields). Because conditions were so poor at Rose’s school, teachers rarely stayed more than a few months, often requesting transfers to better-equipped schools.

In 2008, Lifewater International’s in-country partner brought WASH to Rose’s school. They drilled a well and constructed safe latrines. Students and teachers helped by transporting water and building materials. Most importantly, they formed a student health club. Rose was selected to be a member. The health club is responsible for maintaining the school’s new facilities and for teaching students about good hygiene through drama, dance, and song.

Now that Rose’s school has WASH, students no longer have to spend class time collecting unsafe water. Adolescent girls have the security and privacy of hygienic latrines and no longer miss school each month. Fewer children miss school because of water-related disease and students’ overall academic performance has improved. Also, with the improved conditions, good teachers are now more willing to stay at the school and no longer ask for transfers.

Lifewater’s in-country partner also drilled a well and taught sanitation and hygiene in Rose’s local community. Rose’s family constructed an improved latrine on their property and began washing their hands before eating and after going to the bathroom. When there was a cholera outbreak in the community, people recognized the importance of WASH and began asking Rose and her family to teach them how to prevent the disease. Rose enjoyed teaching her neighbors about hand washing.

Rose hopes to become a health worker when she grows up. She says she wants to learn about different cultures in her area and find out how to they could improve their hygiene practices. She hopes to save lives by sharing her knowledge with others.