DAPP Hygiene Programme Eradicates Diarrhea At Mlumbwira Primary School

“We used to register 15 diarrhea cases in a month but now we rarely hear that a learner has contracted the sanitation related disease.” Recollects Ms. Odeta Beleko a standard 3 teacher at Mlumbwira full primary school in the area of Traditional Authority Chitukula in Lilongwe

DAPP Malawi through Let Children Stay in School project with funding from the roger Federer foundation introduced the sanitation and hygiene programme at Mlumbwira full Primary School in 2015 with an aim of reducing cases of learner  absenteeism due to illnesses that comes with lack of sanitation and hygiene.

Through the programme, DAPP encouraged the school to use locally available resources to make hand washing facilities. 

 

Considering high incidences of diarrhea the school was registering and knowing the importance of having hygiene facilities, the school did not hesitate to make these facilities using tree poles and empty plastic bottles. Each facility was made by electing two poles, with another pole fixed across the top of the two poles and where the plastic bottle is suspended at waist level of a grown up person together with a container with laundry soap. 

These bottles are filled with clean water and these hand washing facilities are visibly seen at each door-step of each classroom at Mlubwira Primary School.

 

 

“Any pupil who visits toilet washes hands before entering my class.” says Ms. Beleko and explains “When I notice that a pupil visited a toilet and enters the class without washing hands, I ask that pupil to go outside to wash hands clean and once the hands are washed that pupil is allowed to enter the class. But for little ones who cannot manage to wash hands own their own, I help them to wash hands thoroughly.” 

Ms. Beleko who has been teaching at Mlumbwira for 3 years says her pupils are now used to this and that the school has managed to eradicate diarrhea.

“Things have changed now. Before installing these hand washing facilities, diarrhea among my pupils was common but now we don’t have that problem. I teach my pupils to always wash hands with soap after visiting toilet because one can catch germs while in the toilet, so they wash hands thoroughly with soap to let those germs go away.” Concludes Ms. Beleko