May 3, 2011

Where in the World Is Project WET? Working with the Peace Corps in Madagascar

Project WET's Latin America & the Caribbean Project Manager Julia Nelson recently returned not from an LAC country but from the island nation of Madagascar, off the eastern coast of Africa. Before joining Project WET, Julia had served in the Peace Corps in Madagascar, giving her ample reason to return. Located in the Indian Ocean, Madagascar is the fourth largest island in the world and also one of the poorest countries. About two-thirds of the population lives on less than USD1.25 per day.

Project WET materials in storage

Project WET first became active in Madagascar in late 2008 and early 2009, delivering approximately 13,000 copies of our water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) materials for distribution to teachers and schools. Unfortunately, a political crisis in March 2009 meant that most of the materials ended up in storage rather than in the hands of children and teachers. Julia, at that time an active PCV not yet working with Project WET, had to be evacuated out of the country in response to the crisis.

In addition to returning to the country that had been her home, Julia also hoped to get Project WET's materials out of storage and into classrooms in Madagascar during her trip. She accomplished that with the help of current Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs) in Madagascar and USAID. After meeting with the Peace Corps and with the organizations that have been storing the materials, Julia arranged for the books, posters and booklets to be delivered to Peace Corps Headquarters, where they will be available for current and future PCVs. She also trained several volunteers on how to use the materials in their work.

PCVs try out some Project WET activities

Julia then returned to the village where she had served as a PCV to deliver some materials and to reconnect with the friends she had made during her service. "They don't have cell phones or outside communication so I literally just showed up and started walking down the dirt road until I ran into a friend," she shared. "It was really neat. I walked around and visited many friends who were happy to see me return." She also brought Project WET materials to a local teacher in the village.

Primary school in Madagascar

Not long after her trip, Julia reported that Peace Corps Volunteers were already using the Project WET materials, giving several hundred copies to teachers and students from an elementary school at the Earth Day and 50th Anniversary of the Peace Corps event held in Mantasoa, Madagascar. "The youth and teachers just loved them," one of the PCVs said. There are currently over 100 PCVs in Madagascar living in villages throughout most of the island, and all of them have the opportunity to use the materials if they choose.

 

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April 26, 2011

Sustaining the Blue Planet Interview: Murat Sahin of UNICEF (Part II)

Murat Sahin of UNICEF

Murat Sahin is the adviser responsible for the WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) in Schools program at UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund, a position he has held since 2009. The Call to Action for the WASH in Schools program is to support global efforts to make the vision shared by WASH in Schools partners a reality: a world where all children go to school and all schools provide a safe, healthy and comfortable environment where children grow, learn and thrive.

In the final installment of a two-part interview, the Project WET Foundation asked Murat Sahin to speak about improving the status of girls, how water education fits into WASH and the importance of partnerships.

Read Part I here.

PWF: The promotion of gender equality has been one argument for the importance of WASH in schools. Why is improving the status of girls so crucial?

MS: Gender equality means that women and men, girls and boys, enjoy the same rights, resources, opportunities and protection. Gender equality means that the biological fact of being male or female does not determine what a person can do or be. Gender equality does not mean that girls and boys, or women and men, are, or should be, exactly the same. Promoting gender equality is crucial to the fulfilment of WASH in Schools primary objective which is to advocate for the protection and fulfilment of children's rights. As in many parts of the world, gender discrimination is prevalent within schools. In many cases, this discrimination is related to cultural beliefs and traditions; sometimes, it is caused by unrecognized problems and needs.

Students in Uganda learn about WASH through Project WET materials

Girls are particularly vulnerable to dropping out of school, partly because many are reluctant to continue their schooling when toilet and washing facilities are not private, not safe or simply not available. When schools have adequate facilities—particularly toilets and washstands that facilitate menstrual hygiene—a major obstacle to attendance is removed. Primary barriers that limits girls' attendance at school include:

• Inappropriate hygiene facilities. Girls who have reached puberty and female school staff who are menstruating need gender-related privacy. If no privacy is provided, students may not use the facilities at schools, resulting in absenteeism from school

• Sexual harassment in toilets. A survey conducted in South Africa reveals that more than 30 percent of the girls attending school had been raped at school. Many of the rapes occurred in school toilets, particularly those that are isolated from the protective environment of the school.

• Students, teachers and school administrators lack knowledge about adolescents' physical changes. Schools have an important role in enabling open discussions where children feel free to talk about issues such as menstruation. Because many children start school late and repeat grades, adolescence begins when they are still in lower primary school. Therefore, this type of education should be age-oriented rather than determined by grade level.

• Girls do more sanitation- and water-related chores than boys. Fetching water for household and school use puts an additional burden on adolescent girls and enforces the belief that it is typically a woman's task.

WASH in Schools fosters social inclusion and individual self-respect. By offering an alternative to the stigma and marginalization associated with the issues mentioned above, it empowers all students - and especially encourages girls and female teachers.

PWF: What is the role of WASH education in efforts to improve overall access to clean water and sanitation, particularly in a sector where success is often measured by numbers of facilities built or other very concrete goals?

MS: Each year, children lose 272 million school days due to diarrhea, and an estimated one in three school-aged children in the developing world is infested with intestinal worms. Not only do these illnesses rob children of school attendance and achievement, but they are underlying causes of malnutrition and stunted growth. WASH in Schools programs significantly reduce hygiene-related disease; increase student attendance and learning achievement and contribute to dignity and gender equality. WASH in Schools works to translate into reality the vision of "a world where all children go to schools [that] provide a safe, healthy and comfortable environment where [they can] grow, learn and thrive."

Healthy Water, Healthy Habits, Healthy People

It is important for us to set clear targets, which is every school to have WASH in Schools facilities and walk through achieving that target. However, it is not enough to equip schools with WASH facilities. We need to ensure that children learn relevant hygiene skills to use and maintain them properly. We are advocating at all levels to bring in everyone on board donors, government, private sector, parents, etc. to learn about WASH in Schools and contribute to WASH in Schools.

PWF: One of the overall WASH in Schools goals was to engage people outside of the traditional WASH sector, including corporations, academics and politicians. How successful have those efforts been?

MS: This is an area where we need to do better. We have taken steps to engage with partners and established a community of practice where we share our lessons and experiences. We meet with partners in monthly Webex sessions and share our plans and activities. We also map out global advocacy events to tap and promote for WASH in Schools. We need to do better in bringing in other sector partners on board and this needs every individual and agency who is implementing WASH in Schools programs to take action.

Other Sustaining the Blue Planet interviews

Murat Sahin of the WASH in Schools Program at UNICEF (Part I)

Danielle Nierenberg of Nourishing the Planet

If your water- or education-related organization would be interested in being a part of the Sustaining the Blue Planet interview series, please contact Nicole.

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April 21, 2011

Notes from the Classroom: When Raccoons Attack!

We often hear about the strong feelings people have about Project WET's flagship Curriculum and Activity Guide. First published in 1995, the Guide has reached hundreds of thousands of educators—many of whom have a fierce loyalty to the book. Last week we received an email from the director of the Van Buren Youth Camp in Michigan who described how her "beloved Project WET Curriculum Guide" met an ignominious—if nature-inspired—end:

"Sadly, over the winter a raccoon decided to break in to our nature hut," Becky Pasman told us via email. "He consumed two boxes of rodent poison, played havoc on our supplies and then threw up all over the hut. One item hit in all of his mayhem was my beloved Project Wet Curriculum Guide. I've made an attempt to clean up the traces of his indigestion, but I cannot begin to get it all."

Pasman—a former eighth grade earth science teacher—included a very sad scan of her book as proof of its demise:

"My poor book...it has been well loved and has many project notes in the margins. It will be missed!"

She was writing to purchase a new Guide, but we figured that kind of devotion had to be worth a free replacement. We hope this won't cause a flood of Project WET educators to allow woodland creatures unfettered access to their Guides, but that's a chance we're willing to take.

The Curriculum and Activity Guide is (normally!) available for purchase only through workshops conducted by the Project WET USA Network. Please contact your local coordinator to learn about upcoming workshops.

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April 19, 2011

Sustaining the Blue Planet Interview: Murat Sahin of UNICEF

Murat Sahin

Murat Sahin is the adviser responsible for the WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) in Schools program at UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund, a position he has held since 2009. The Call to Action for the WASH in Schools program is to support global efforts to make the vision shared by WASH in Schools partners a reality: a world where all children go to school and all schools provide a safe, healthy and comfortable environment where children grow, learn and thrive.

Sahin holds a master's degree in Business Administration and a bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering. He has fourteen years of experience, 10 of which were spent with UNICEF WASH and Education programs in Turkey, Tajikistan and North Korea. In North Korea, Murat managed a WASH program that addressed the needs of semi-urban settlements through environmentally friendly and energy-independent solutions, including gravity fed water supply schemes and decentralized waste water treatment systems. In Tajikistan, Murat led UNICEF's child development program. In Turkey, Murat served in the Emergency Response and Recovery Programme during the 1999 earthquakes. Before joining UNICEF, Murat worked as a loss reduction engineer in water supply system rehabilitation projects in Turkey. Murat is a Turkish national and speaks Russian and English.

In the first of a two-part interview, the Project WET Foundation asked Murat Sahin to elaborate on the importance of involving children and the challenges of available data around the topic.

Project WET Foundation (PWF): One of the hallmarks of WASH in Schools has been the effort to involve children in decision-making around the programs to be implemented. Why is this an emphasis, and how is it affecting outcomes?

Murat Sahin (MS): Children are fast learners. Compared to adults, children can more easily change their behavior or develop new long-term behaviors as a result of increased knowledge and facilitated practices. Children and youths may question existing practices in their households, and by demonstrating good hygiene, they become agents of change within their families and communities.

Ensuring that children are healthy and able to learn is an essential part of WASH in School programs. The emphasis on WASH in Schools programs is not only to equip every school with an hygienic school environment but also to teach children how to prevent diarrheal diseases and other water and sanitation related illnesses and diseases through the widespread adoption of safe hygiene practices as well as through an interactive child-centered and participatory approach that builds their life skills and empowers them to make good choices.

When children understand and think together about their situations and practices, they can plan and act to prevent diseases, now and in the future.

Involving children during the design and rehabilitation process for facilities at school is critical. Children have a different view of the world than adults and therefore experience the use of facilities differently. Children can be frightened in situations that adults consider to be safe. Getting their views and ask them to jointly look into appropriate and acceptable solutions, will increase success of the WASH in Schools programs.

Involving children in operation of WASH facilities sustains the facilities: Members of youth hygiene clubs or adolescent school children can also actively participate in meetings, assessments to monitor and evaluate programme. This keeps the facilities used and maintained well.

Children are role models. What they learn at school is likely to be passed on to their peers and to their own children if they become parents.

PWF: One challenge that you have identified is the lack of available data on current access to water and sanitation in schools. Is that situation improving, and if not, how do you address the problem?

MS: The Call to Action campaign incorporates six key action points, one of which calls for improved monitoring of WASH in Schools programs. National monitoring systems for WASH in schools are often weak; many countries do not have even basic data on the WASH situation in schools. This lack of information on the status of WASH in schools hampers planning and resource allocation decisions, and makes it difficult to ensure accountability and evaluate progress.

As part of the Call to action for WASH in Schools campaign, UNICEF contributed to global efforts to improve monitoring of WASH in Schools through the development of regional tool kits to help countries incorporate WASH-related indicators into national EMIS, the institutionalisation of national monitoring systems, and the completion of major school WASH facility inventories. Several countries (i.e. Belize, Ethiopia, Gambia, Myanmar, Rwanda, etc.) undertook WASH in Schools assessments and evaluations and used the newly released WHO/UNICEF Guidelines on Minimum Standards for WASH in Schools and the EAPRO WASH in Schools monitoring toolkit. This has streamlined the use of similar questions and indicators at WASH in Schools programming and also has helped to bring in the gender dimension of access to facilities in Schools.

A new WASH in Schools monitoring package was released in April 2010 which consisted of three modules:

• The EMIS module: a set of basic monitoring questions on WASH in Schools to be incorporated into national Education Monitoring Information Systems (EMIS), usually administered annually;
• The survey module: a more comprehensive set of questions, observations and focus group discussion guidelines for use in national WASH in Schools surveys as well as for sub-national, project level or thematic surveys;
• The children's monitoring module: a teacher's guide and tool set for the monitoring of WASH in Schools by students, including observation checklists, survey questions and special monitoring exercises.

The modules are designed to gather key data on all components of WASH in Schools programming, including water, sanitation and handwashing facilities; hygiene knowledge and practices; waste disposal; and operation and maintenance systems. The modules focus on data collection in schools, with supplemental tools for gathering complimentary information from communities (within the children's module) and from government officials responsible for WASH in schools (within the survey module).

In 2011, we have initiated a global WASH in Schools mapping exercise with WASH in Schools partners. There are 50 countries where WASH in Schools practitioners on the ground came forward and joined at the WASH in Schools mapping exercise. The Mapping exercise will be finished by end of April 2011 and will help us to document available information on coverage and know-how on WASH in Schools.

Coming up: Sahin describes how WASH and gender equality are linked and why monitoring has to be more than a numbers game.

Other Sustaining the Blue Planet interviews: Danielle Nierenberg of Nourishing the Planet

 

 

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