Building pit latrines for hygiene in Primary Schools

The project aims at enhancing pupils’ learning conditions through the construction of 32 toilets at the 8+ primary schools in different parts of Nyanza. Currently 480 pupils are sharing two toilets which are almost full. Its implementation will solve the toilet shortage problem but also other related problems – teachers’ poor productivity, pupils’ poor academic performances, drop out and low self-esteem.

This situation contributes significantly to pupils’ absenteeism and dropout from school. Parents are reluctant to send their children, and in particular girls, to school because pupils will queue for hours and fight to use the very few existing toilets. To this we should add the sanitary issue. Because boys and girls share the same toilets, there is a risk for the girls to be infected when boys stand up while using the toilets. There is also this situation where pupils defecate behind the classrooms or in class during the lessons because they fear to be harassed if they go to the toilets, or because they are tired to queue. The result is they become easy target to other students who bully them, which contributes to lowering their self-esteem

Some of the expected impacts are:

• Higher pupils’ and girls’ enrollment, retention and academic success rate
• Girls will feel more confident, stay the necessary years in school to achieve their objective of being educated
• Improvement of the academic performances of the pupils
• Improvement of pupils’ self-esteem and well-being