SANITATION AND HYGIENE BY HANDWASHING PROJECT
Brief description of the project
The Sanitation and hygiene by hand washing in schools in Kisarawe District to prevent COVID-19 infection Project was funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and implemented by the Environmental Conservation Community of Tanzania (ECCT) from april 2021 to January 2022.
Project goal
This project was to support long-term positive change in the lives of primary schools’ children and the community in general to achieve adequate and sustainable sanitation and hygiene behaviour in Kisarawe District.
Specific objectives of the project are to:
- Raise awareness to school children, teachers, and the targeted community towards best practices for sanitation and hygiene to prevent infectious diseases;
- Provide sanitation and hygiene equipment, in the schools to advocate hand washing behaviours for disease prevention and control;
- Training students from 12 schools in Kisarawe district on how to follow 12 steps for proper hand wash practices by using footling operator hand wash facilities to avoid re-infection;
- Training local government officials at both district and ward levels.
Project Activities:
Project inception event: The inception event of a survey on sanitation and hygiene by hand washing in schools in Kisarawe district to prevent the Covid-19 project was held on 21st May 2021 at Kisarawe district council’s hall. This event participants included all project stakeholders from project coordinator organisation, JICA (Project Financier), Governments representatives, students, teachers and Community. The aim of this event was to inform and engage the Kisarawe district authorities, schools and the communities in the preparation and implementation of the project and bringing all project stakeholders together to share information about the project and seek their inputs and support during the project implementation. The event was attended and officiated by former Kisarawe District Commissioner- Hon Jokate Mwegelo. During her speech, she insisted on cooperating and supporting the project, until its closure and also the school community to ensure they effectively use the knowledge of handwashing, keep and maintain the facilities that would be installed to prevent the infectious disease. She insisted “I don’t expect any cases from the project area to be reported for the students to be affected by these diseases as they have the infrastructure for making sure of full control of the spread of these infectious diseases”
Project workshop Training Summary: In this project we conducted four (4) workshop training sessions. The first (1) training was with Kisarawe District authority/officers which was conducted for two days on 30th September, 2021 and 31st September 2021 in Kisarawe District. The training involved 41 participants from different district departments such as district health officers, district education officers for Primary and Secondary schools), district environmental officers and ECCT team/staff, and volunteers.
The second (2) training was with Kisarawe ward executive officers, ward health officers, ward social welfare officers, village executive officers, village chairman, and ward councils. This training was conducted on the 8th and 9th of October, 2021. 41 participants from the above groups all attended the workshop. This workshop training 40 participants were invited from ward and village level in Kisarawe. (Group photo with Ward and village leader from Kisarawe district after the training.)
The third (3) workshop training was for students from 12 project beneficiary schools. This workshop was conducted on 15th October 2021, during the world hand washes day 2021, which was part of raising awareness to the students about the importance of proper hand-washing practices. ECCT with the support of JICA organised a workshop on hygiene and sanitation in Kisarawe District 12 schools. It was an interesting and successful workshop. Upon arrival at the Chanzige TCC ground, we were welcomed by the team and they made the necessary arrangements for the workshop to begin. The students were very excited and eager to take part in the workshop. Group photo
The workshop training was conducted on 15th October 2021 in Kisarawe District, the training involved 450 students from 12 schools in Kisarawe, which are beneficiaries of this project. Other participants from the district authority’s Kisarawe district council’s deputy director, District health officers, community welfare district officers, councils, school teachers, ECCT team/staff, and volunteers. Group photo
This workshop was attended by Mr. Wanchoke Chinchibela deputy director of Kisarawe District Councils. Mr. Wanchoke Chinchibela in opening speech thanked ECCT and JICA for organising the workshops and also for selecting Kisarawe district for implementing the project, he said “Tanzania is the same as any other country around the globe, we are affected by this Covid-19 pandemic. Therefore, the provision of handwashing education is paramount and it will help on our fight against Covid-19 pandemic and anther infectious diseases” He mentioned the importance of the workshop training on how it helps to raise awareness and build capacity on Sanitation and Hygiene particularly proper handwashing, in order to prevent the spread of infectious diseases including Covid-19, Cholera, Skin disease, diarrhoea and Typhoid. Group photo
Success of the project
- Conducted an inception project workshop event and all invited participants during the inception event attended and they were very excited for the project to be implemented in their areas and assured us full support and cooperation before and after the project ended and everything went as promised until we closed the project.
- Trained 450 students from 12 schools in Kisarawe District council. These students were trained on proper hand wash practices. The training was more about hand washing because it helps them and their communities stay healthy. According to New Phase of Hand Hygiene Project to Focus on Community Settings | CDC Foundation “Hand Washing can reduce respiratory illnesses, like colds, in the general population by up to 21%. Additionally, school-based programs promoting handwashing and hand hygiene can result in fewer gastrointestinal and respiratory illnesses and fewer missed school days.
- Trained 41 Local Government Authorities at Kisarawe District council on basic hygiene and sanitation issues.
- Trained 41 Kisarawe District officers from ward level on basic hygiene and sanitation issues.
- Trained 30 Health Teachers at Kisarawe District council on basic hygiene and sanitation issues
- Community leaders to promote and educate community members on health, hygiene, environmental sanitation, management of WASH facilities, and household sanitation improvement
- 24 hand wash equipment installed in 12 schools in Kisarawe together with liquid soap, tissue and sanitizer were provided. This hand wash equipment is paramount for soliciting behaviour change for students and teachers.
- Established 12 health and environmental clubs in Kisarawe District schools for the aim of sustaining the knowledge we imparted to them to continue impacting other students to promote the best way to prevent Covid-19 by emphasising avoidance of being exposed to the virus that causes Covid-19, which is thought to spread mainly from person to person. Another key preventive action that the club will continue to emphasise to the school community is to regularly clean their hands. Cleaning hands at key times with soap and water for at least 20 seconds or using an alcohol-based hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol contained if soap and water are not readily available. It is one of the most important steps a person can take to avoid getting sick
- The project was highly accepted by the community as it’s going to help them with infectious diseases prevention and also cost serving for treatment. The project also provided 12 hands wash equipments in line with liquid soap, hand tissue, and a big dust bin, to the targeted schools will be provided
- Good cooperation and support from Kisarawe District Councils during the preparation of workshop training. Fortunately, most of our workshop training presentation regarding the covid-19 infectious was done by the expert from the Kisarawe district councils. Because the government has provided intensive training about the Covid-19 to all public health experts so that they can continue educating people on how to take care of themselves to protect against the Covid-19 pandemic.
