Save the Children has been running School Health and Nutrition (SHN) programmes in Malawi since 1998. When the programmes started, only 42% of schools had access to clean water and none had hand-washing facilities. It is now phasing out the programmes, passing over responsibility to the government.

Before the SHN programmes were launched, children often had to travel long distances to fetch water, and girls faced harassment from boys and men. They also stayed away from school when they were menstruating due to the lack of privacy and pupils did not wash their hands after using the toilet. To increase access to and use of safe water and sanitation facilities, Save the Children worked with communities and schools to construct and rehabilitate boreholes, latrines, and hand-washing facilities and to train teachers and communities on hygiene.

Recent surveys [1] show that the presence of adequate water and sanitation facilities has had a tremendous impact on children’s lives and communities. A number of challenges, however, remain. Hand-washing continues to be a low priority for schools and communities. A targeted campaign to emphasise its importance is needed.

[1] Save the Children (2008). Improving water, sanitation, and hygiene behaviors in schools : successes and lessons learned from Mangochi District, Malawi. Download here

Related news:

• Malawi: learning from earlier community water kiosks problems in Lilongwe, Source Weekly, 18 Mar 2009;
• Madagascar: education hampered by lack of clean water, Source Weekly, 27 May 2009

Contact: Save the Children, Humphreys Kalengamaliro, hkalengamaliro@savechildren.org or Natalie Roschnik, nroschnik@savechildren.org

Web sites: Save the Children ; Schools & Health ; WASH in Schools

Tags: africa, hygiene promotion, school sanitation