Every year of education improves a person’s health and quality of life. This is a universal fact, as true in rural Africa where every year of education means less child and maternal mortality as it is in metropolitan Washington, DC where every year of education means fewer deaths. One of the big barriers to keeping kids in school in rural Africa is a lack of sanitation facilities and no access to clean water. When girls hit puberty they miss one week every month because there is no safe place at school for them to address their needs. Also the lack of toilets at schools means kids can get sick even when they’re at school. Throughout rural Zambia, schools are simply not healthy nor safe.
But what if we turned this around? What if students could go to school, have a safe place to address their sanitation needs and learn the best practices of sanitation, about germs and proper washing? What if they could learn about the importance of using a latrine, and then take that knowledge back to their families, spreading the news far and wide? We would see kids stay in school. We would see healthier students. We would see healthier communities. And as a result, we would help increase the quality of life for Zambians everywhere.
You can help make schools a safe and healthy place for teenage girls and all kids alike through the introduction of tools - tools like tablets for teachers, loaded with instructional videos on teaching good hygiene. These same tablets will be used for the important task of filing monthly reports on sanitation progress to the national level, helping the ministries of health and education know where and when to send the right interventions when a school is not a safe learning environment. And filing these reports over the cellular network saves on money and pollution normally expended on fuel driving out to remote schools.
With your support, we will also host a “Healthy School Forum” where inspirational community leaders will introduce concepts of hygiene and sanitation and challenge the students to raise their school’s standard. Every two months, a team of sanitation and hygiene experts will visit the school to review progress, troubleshoot problems, and certify schools who have achieved Healthy School status. Teachers and students will be able to see their school’s progress using their tablet, both against their previous scores and against their neighboring schools, creating a healthy competition to drive improvement.
We can achieve all of this for just $4,000 per school, and we would like to start by supporting 12 schools to achieve Healthy School certification. Help us raise $48,0000 to teach students in Zambia better sanitation and improve their overall health and potential in the process. That’s almost 5,000 kids who will get to live happier, healthier lives.
But what if we turned this around? What if students could go to school, have a safe place to address their sanitation needs and learn the best practices of sanitation, about germs and proper washing? What if they could learn about the importance of using a latrine, and then take that knowledge back to their families, spreading the news far and wide? We would see kids stay in school. We would see healthier students. We would see healthier communities. And as a result, we would help increase the quality of life for Zambians everywhere.
You can help make schools a safe and healthy place for teenage girls and all kids alike through the introduction of tools - tools like tablets for teachers, loaded with instructional videos on teaching good hygiene. These same tablets will be used for the important task of filing monthly reports on sanitation progress to the national level, helping the ministries of health and education know where and when to send the right interventions when a school is not a safe learning environment. And filing these reports over the cellular network saves on money and pollution normally expended on fuel driving out to remote schools.
With your support, we will also host a “Healthy School Forum” where inspirational community leaders will introduce concepts of hygiene and sanitation and challenge the students to raise their school’s standard. Every two months, a team of sanitation and hygiene experts will visit the school to review progress, troubleshoot problems, and certify schools who have achieved Healthy School status. Teachers and students will be able to see their school’s progress using their tablet, both against their previous scores and against their neighboring schools, creating a healthy competition to drive improvement.
We can achieve all of this for just $4,000 per school, and we would like to start by supporting 12 schools to achieve Healthy School certification. Help us raise $48,0000 to teach students in Zambia better sanitation and improve their overall health and potential in the process. That’s almost 5,000 kids who will get to live happier, healthier lives.
