Plan International, Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council

The importance of profiling hygiene both for its intrinsic value and also for promotion of sanitation, with particular attention to the needs in Schools and for girl children

SACOSAN IVSACOSAN IV

Why hygiene is important? Improved Sanitation: one

that hygienically separates human excreta from human contact (JMP)

Hygiene practices: all preventative measures to cut the faecal chain

For health gains – safe disposal of human waste is only half the battle – hygiene is the essential second half.

WSSCC Definition of sanitation: ‘collection, transport, treatment and disposal or reuse of human excreta, domestic waste water and solid waste, and associated hygiene promotion.

School Sanitation in South Asia Many schools have no toilets Those that do – toilets are too few, locked, unclean, or

without water School toilets are no ones responsibility Hand washing with soap after toilet use is very low Cleaning practices involving students reproduce

societal discrimination around caste, gender and age. Excellent School WASH projects----many islands of

excellence but a huge challenge if we are to scale up across South Asia.

UNICEF (2010): Equity in School WASH, Overcoming exclusion and discrimination in South Asia. Regional synthesis

Minimum Standards: Hygiene & the School Environment

1. Hygiene education included in school curriculum2. Positive hygiene behaviours promoted3. Facilities and resources help students and teachers

to practice hygiene and stop spread of diseases4. Regular cleaning and waste disposal: clean school 5. Food storage and preparation is safe and hygienic

to minimise disease transmission

WHO (2009): Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Standards in Low-cost Settings

Practice level?Literacy , knowledge level Practise

We monitor infrastructure not habit Incorporation of Hygiene aspects to national

policies and guidelines allowing integration Small number of women decision makers We do not involve users enough Poor life skills and cultural factors prevent

children and women from participating

The experience of PLAN Participatory surveys/ situation analysis Community triggering targeting total

sanitation Child-led Hygiene promotion activities Latrine construction monitoring Child-led research Child-led advocacy for policy

development

When children participate we have a better chance of changing habits

Plan International, Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council

Lets pay particular attention to the needs of adolescent girls in schools.

SACOSAN IVSACOSAN IV

8

Discrimination

Poverty

Poor results

Negative Experiences in School

Sociocultural beliefs

Cost

Peer Relations

Why Girls do not stay or learn in school ?

89 % experienced some form of restriction 68 % excluded from religious activities 53% in Bangladesh absent from school due to

menstruation 41% lack of privacy for washing and cleaning . Main reason

for being absent Only 42% reported an adequate toilet at school with

privacy for changing and 55 % at home 85% reported abdominal pain , 8 % excessive bleeding and

5% breast pain

Lets listen to girls

.

SACOSAN IVSACOSAN IV

•All adolescent girls admitted that they missed school when they had their menstrual periods and took the help of other students to catch up. They also said that they do not sit next to or touch a girl when she has her period. •68% of girls stay at home for 5 days a month or 50 days a year

Its a big issue for us!10

11We now have some examples across SA….

Disposal facilitiesTamil Nadu, India

Sanitation blocks, Dhaka, Bangladesh

12

It can been done…. Now lets take it to scale

The government is all set to construct girl-friendly toilets in 5500 community schools throughout the country. The government has allocated Rs. 1.1 billion [US$ 15 million] for the purpose

Delhi government will soon make available sanitary napkins free of cost to girl students from poor families in all schools run by it to ensure that their attendance do not suffer due to hygiene-related issues.Dept of Rural Development Tamil Nadu have installed Incinerators in 33 girls’ toilets in schools in the State.

NEPAL INDIA

Unicef

Where are we today We are talking about it We are also doing something

about it……

We must go further -Make it an essential part of

household and institutional sanitation & hygiene

Link it to reproductive health, education and life skills development

Include this in our commitments for the region as a whole

14

An appeal and a call for action Break the silence Look beyond toilets

and soap Ask women and girls

and plan with and for them

Redefine basic sanitation to include their needs.