Safe Drinking Water for 40 schools in Bolivia

Dear supporters,

The first year of our project in 40 schools in Tiquipaya (Bolivia) has finished. Currently, school kids in Bolivia are on summer vacation  (yes, this is summertime in the Southern part of the planet) and only will return to school in February 2013. As we reported earlier, our project has brought about sifnificant changes to the schools, mostly related to water and hygiene behaviour. Behaviour change is a slow and complex process, but within a short time, we achieved that most kids (and teachers as well) started drinking treated water and washing hands at critical moments. These changes seem simple but they make a big difference in the lives of people: children who drink safe water and wash hands is significantly better than the one of their peers who do not apply these simple solutions for saving lives.

The project will continue for another year and we are already preparing the materials and trainings for 2013. However, before we start with our activities at schools again, we wanted to share with you an official certificate we received from the Ministry of Education at District level – they are thanking the SODIS Foundation for its dedicated work (see picture). In this way, we would like to say thank you to all our supporters – thanks to people like you, this project has been possible and thousands of lives have been improved.

In the coming months, you will hear from us again, reporting from the experiences in the field, about successes, failures and challenges. We hope this project is as motivating and exciting as it is to us, and we will be looking forward to receiving some feedback from you – please let us know how we can continue to improve our reports and the way we keep you informed.

We hope you enjoy the holiday season and wish you all the best for 2013.

For the whole project team,

Matthias Saladin

Links:

• New micro-project which extends our project to daycare centers