strengthen hand washing to 800 children in Rwanda

There were many activities carried out in the Project Strengthen Hand Washing to 800 Children in Rwanda, in these last months. To mention some, there were teaching session carried out at both Primary and Secondary Schools in Huye District to raise students’ awareness about hygienic measures especially hand washing habit.

Nextly, we selected four families in Nyakagezi Village, Huye Sector with an average of 5 children who did not have latrines and we built for them Ventilated Improved Pits (VIPs). During those building activities, we conducted teaching sessions in the community in order to increase hand hygiene awareness even to the community.

Lastly, we celebrated together the hand washing day where more than a thousand students and a hundred villagers together with local leaders and the Dean of Students at the University of Rwanda Participated in it . We chose most vulnerable people and provided them with tools to keep clean water.

Students from different schools competed in demonstrating how hygienic measures can be achieved through Handwashing.

One of the women, Marcelline, for whose family we built latrines gave testimony on how it helped her family getting rid of long lasting infectious diseases from the lack of hygiene. She said that many children in the village suffer from that and sometimes one can find children suffering from sores in their feet from lack of hygiene. She thanked RVCP on behalf of other families and wished that every family could have appropriate latrine to reduce those diseases.

Special thanks to everyone who contribute to make this happen, your donation has served the community and we hope to continue working together to improve the living standard of those families especially children.

Links:

• CELEBRATING HAND HYGIENE DAY IN NYAKAGEZI VILLAGE

Among the hygiene, water and sanitation program activities; we conduct weekly teaching sessions at primary school for kids aged 7-12 years old. The aim of the sessions is to build a culture of hand washing and home hygiene for children at their early age. Through posters, games and teaching, the receive various knowledge on good hand washing practices, using soap, cleaning ustensils at home before eating ... 

During the first trimester, over 100 students received weekly teaching sessions and volunteers enabled them to practice the hygiene and sanitation at school. volunteers demonstrated every activity and they provided examples of the theories given to children. They were also encouraged to practice everything at home and become ambassadors of hygiene and sanitation promotion at their families and villages. 

We hope to reduce diseases which are caused by low hygiene conditions among children in Rwanda through providing accurate knowledge and skills to primary school kids who mostly suffer as a results of low hygiene conditions. the advocacy is also done at the local leaders to help school having enough water and various ressources needed to improve hygiene and sanitation condition for children at schools. 

Due to the delay of funds transfer, the ventilated Improved pits for the villagers who doesn't have the capacity to build the hygienic latrines during the last summer 2014. The latrines are constructed for poor families which don't have the capacity and possibilities to build the latrines themselves. 

The project aim to improve the hygiene and sanitation conditions for the vulnerable village members especially widows, orphans and other poor families which lack the capacity to build the latrines themselves. The latrines are constructed in partnership with BVDA from UK. the BVDA raise funds for construction of 4 VIP latrines every year and the Rwanda Village Concept Project coordinate the construction activities including selecting the vulnerable families that need the latrines most than others, educating the families about how to improve their hygiene and sanitation conditions in their families and the village in General. 

Starting November 2014, the latriens has been started to be constructed for the selected families which was selected in collaboration with the local leaders and other village members. We expect to improve the knowledge and skills of the beneficiaries and the sanitation conditions improvment of the benefited families and the village members in general. 

More vulnerable families which can't afford to build the latriens are still available and we look forward to receive your support to continue working for public health improvement. According to our data, a latrine that we construct for the villagers can last up to more than 10 years while the normal ones use to last less than 1 year. 

It is now two months, RVCP volunteers have been volunteering in the hygiene, water and sanitation education sessions. The teaching sessions were being delivered at primary schools and villages that we work with. The teaching sessions focus on the role of hand washing tp prevent low hygiene related disease which might be contracted while eating or touching specific places on our body. 

The education sessions provided also the capacity of the participants to be able to spread the knowledge and skills gained among their colleagues in the village. The water boiling was also one of the main topics because the water for drinking is not clean, so it is very neccessary for everyone to boil water before drinking. 

The team welcome everyone who wish to join for improving his/her skills in hygiene, water and sanitation and in the community health improvement of the underprivileged communities. 

We are in the second week of the second trimester for primary school pupils. As planned our volunteers are conducting weekly teaching sessions on hygiene, water and sanitation good practices. The school that we have worked in 2013 has received a partner to build latrines with good hygienic standards by the help of RVCP advocacy. RVCP volunteers in its hygiene program are educating kids from 1^st year to 6^th year on how to use the latrines in a good way in order to make latrines last longer and prevent diseases which may come from unsafe practices of hand washing. The school administration is always reminded to provide water for hand washing for kids every time they use the latrines. Currently the organization is working on fundraising for water tank construction at school which will benefit both the school and the villagers around Nyanza primary school. We look forward to work with you to make this goal achievable. Do not hesitate to contact us on rwandavcp@gmail.com or rvcp_coordinator@yahoo.com for further information.