By Matthias Saladin | Project leader
During our last visit to the schools in Tiquipaya, we focused our attention on the issue of handwashing. In fact, the project this year established "proper hand washing by all students at key moments" as a goal for all our target schools. "Key moments" are after visiting the bathroom and before eating – several research studies have shown that washing hands at these key moments can reduce diarrhea rates by up to 50%.
One of the challenges we encountered previously was the lack of soap at schools. Therefore, the SODIS Foundation decided to train teachers and some of the older students in soap making, which turned out to be feasible but not as easy as expected. In fact, making soap is not difficult at all, but making a soap of high quality is - especially in an artisanal setting and without professional emplloyees. Furthermore, it also involves handling strong acids, which is why we decided to implement this activity only with the older students.
After some difficulties and a lot of learning, the students managed to produce their own soap, which now is being used at several schools. The SODIS Foundation is now looking into the option of setting up a student-run micro-enterprise which would be dedicated to produce soap for all 40 schools of the municipality. And we are preparing some special promotion and awareness-raising activities for October 15, which is global hand washing day.
Given all these developments, we decided to extend the project further in order to keep supporting the schools in Tiquipaya in improving their water, sanitation and hygiene conditions. We will keep informing you about lessons learned and challenges ahead.
We hope this report has been useful to you. Please let us know if you have specific question are feedback, and share this report with people who may be interested in supporting out project. Improving water and hygiene conditions at schools is a very direct and cost-effective way of improving conditions and combating disease. We thank you in advance for your support.
With warm greetings from the whole project team,
Matthias Saladin
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