Clean water for 917 households Kenya

Thank you so much for your support of this project helping to provide one of the most basic needs to live a long and healthy life - access to clean water.  In this report we hear from Ednah Cherono Chirchir, a teacher from Sitian Secondary school.  Ednah's school has a 32,000ltr ferrous cement tank provided by Brighter Communities Worldwide to harvest rain water from the roof of the school.  She tells about how her school environment has improved and become a safer and healthier place for the children to attend school.   

Providing access to clean water with clean sanitary environments for boys and girls in the school has led to increased enrolment and more sustained attendance. The school’s commitment to the programme has seen them receive an award in the Healthy Schools initiative in 2022.

Sitian Secondary School has benefited enormously from their relationship with Brighter Communities Worldwide (BCW) which started in 2015. In that year the school earned the Girls for Girls Certification denoting schools that have applied the BCW initiative for creating a school environment that encourages girls to attend. Ednah C. Chirchir said that the Girls for Girls programme has meant “we no longer have girls missing school when they have their menstruation”.

The Healthy Environment for Children Alliance (HECA) programme has led to increased enrolment at the school for boys and girls and culminated in the school being awarded the Silver Flag in the BCW Healthy Schools initiative in 2022. And the Sanitation programme involved the building of a boys’ toilet in the school which Ednah said, “has led to increased enrolment of boys and we have been sending quite a number of boys to university”. Benefits have also been felt beyond the student body. The installation of a 32,000ltr cement water tank at the school has meant not only the provision of safe water for the students, but also for staff, parents, and the wider community. The school also had a lot of support from BCW during the Covid pandemic when the provision of posters and hand washers helped them to deal with a situation they had never faced before.

24 Schools involved in the Health Schools programme took part in activites to mark Global Handwashing Day on October 15th.  School management, teachers, parents and students took part in demonstrating best use of tippy tappys in the school and correct handwashing practice.