Pit latrines for 13 schools in the Philippines

In the past three months, we have been faced with different challenges.

First, in January, we were forced to temporarily suspend our work in Mindoro Island following the eruption of the Taal Volcano and the risk of volcano earthquakes. Despite this slowdown, our project manager in the field, Anna, was able to resume activities at the beginning of February. 

During the whole month, the work went quite smoothly, and Anna was able to meet our local partners to schedule sanitation training as well as the distribution of hygiene kits in the 13 schools involved in our WASH project.

Furthermore, in February we were able to engage in the construction of another toilet in the Matabang Urilang Village. Indeed, after building pit latrines and toilets in the Matabang Urilan Elementary School, we realized that after school the toilet was used also by the inhabitants of the nearby Mangyan village. Therefore, we decided to build a new toilet structure between the huts of the inhabited center, receiving strong support from the Mangyan community which collaborated with us to create the space necessary for the latrine. It was an example of "bayanihan", the collective spirit of the Filipinos!

A second challenge that we have been faced with was the spread of the Coronavirus pandemic, which also caused some slowdowns to our job. Notwithstanding this health emergency, with due precautions and where possible, we have been able to make progress. Our work indeed is aimed at promoting hygiene and avoid the spread of diseases. 

Links:

• Facebook Page
• Kito Onlus' website

In the last three months, we worked hardly for developing our project in the Mindoro Island despite two strong typhoons (Tisoy and Ursula) that affected the Philippines in December.

The constructions of the pit-latrines and the water systems in the 13 sites is going fast thanks to the support of the local beneficiaries (mangyan indigenous people) coordinated by Anna Orlando, the Kito Onlus Field Project Manager.

We built the pit latrines in each schools, divided by gender, lavatories and water system with water tanks.

Some other constructions works have been done, if necessary, for improving schools buildings standards like reconstruction of the roof, new feeding area, ect.

In each site we used local building materials like bamboo and sawali. and the project was shared with the beneficiaries and the Department of Education.