Success Story: WASH Program
In order to promote hygiene and improve school health infrastructure, J/P HRO established the USAID-funded Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) project to serve as a model for health-related best practices.
The goal of our WASH program is to strengthen knowledge, attitudes, and interests of the 25 schools in Delmas 32. Our beneficiaries total roughly 3,500, including directors, parents, students, and support staff.
In phase one of the project, 10 schools were equipped with modern sanitary facilities. Remonne Etienne, 15, has memories of her old school toilets. “It was just a hole dug in the floor. The space was nauseous and dirty, with streaks of urine everywhere and we had to stand in line because it was a single latrine.” Remonne also explained how she caught an infection due to these conditions, which required 5 days of antibiotic treatments.
Many students in the beneficiary schools experienced poorly maintained toilets and facilities, such as these, prior to our WASH program implementation. For Aldy Cherestal, a 17-year-old at the l’Institution mixte de l’Espoir, the old toilets were “a nightmare.” Aldy says that even in the classrooms the odor from poor sanitation infrastructure prevented students from concentrating.
Despite the challenges and constraints, the WASH program has been able to provide improved sanitation for girls, boys, and staff in 10 schools.
The new sanitary facilities mark a new era. Teachers and students speak of “before” and “now.” The new sanitary blocks are: more hygienic, more spacious, more comfortable, cleaner, and more beautiful as described by the beneficiaries. Many used the word pride when speaking of this project.
Pierre Marie Wilda Charles, Director of l’Ecole Bethléem, says that raising awareness to keep these facilities clean has been made easier. In several schools, student committees have been set up to promote peer education and ensure proper maintenance of facilities.
