SSHE Roundtable crosses borders

Handwashing could reduce levels of diarrhoeal disease amongst children by 47% and of respiratory disease by 30% according to the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Hygiene in school, with separate facilities for boys and girls, is fundamental to reducing levels of illness and to keeping girls in school.

But obstacles include lack of collaboration between health, water and education sectors, lack of teacher training and capacity in schools and an over-focus on toilets and taps at the expense of human attitudes and practices.

UNICEF plans to focus on helping countries with the highest levels of child mortality to introduce full scale sustainable programmes. UNESCO is committed to including water, sanitation and hygiene education in its definition of a good quality school. But Dr Mary Jo Pigozzi, UNESCO’s Director of Quality Education, warned that schools and teachers are under pressure from all sides. “Teachers are underpaid and sometimes they are not paid at all for three months and they have to have second jobs to keep their children alive. Asking them to stay after school to ensure that the toilets are clean is an issue.”

Paul van Koppen, Director of IRC, emphasised the opportunity that schools give for changing behaviour. “School children not only embody the new generation, but they are also the most important change agents for the parents.” Initiatives must provide young people with the skills and means to use what they learn. “Knowledge that is not applied to hygiene behaviour and practice has no impact on health.”

Marifathon Oripova from Tajikstan (right) and her translator at the Roundtable (photo P. McIntyre)