Improving rural schools in Nepal

Separate toilets for boys and girls 

Often schools with hundreds of students have only one bathroom for all pupils, which can become very unsanitary. Across Nepal, approximately 30% of girls miss school during periods, due to lack of private clean space to use.

Over the past year we have built toilet blocks at 11 schools, benefiting 1,440 children and many more in the years to come. Separate girls’ and boy’s toilets at secondary school are a key factor in teenage girls attending school.

One School Principal told us, "I very much hope that after having this facility our students will be very happy and continue to attend school in days to come. Before, we had diarrhoea and other infections due to a lack of proper toilets. Girl students during their menstruation remained absent for 2-3 days. Now, we are happy to have separate toilets for girls and boys. Menstrual hygiene problems will be solved and students will have the motivation to come to school regularly.”

Running water and child friendly taps 

We connect schools to sustainable sources of water and install child friendly taps and filters, enabling both handwashing and drinking. As well as improving hygiene, offering drinking water hugely increases children’s likelihood of attending during the dry season. 

Over the past year we have built new taps at eleven schools, benefiting 1,741 children, as well as several thousand community members who also have access to water. This can make a huge difference in reducing the time women and children spend collecting water, which can be hours every day.

Parbati, a community person told us “When the drinking water facility was installed, we were very happy. We feel our bad days are over because the water facilities are very near to us. Before, our children had to take bottled water to school, but when it was finished, there wasn’t any more. During the summer, when the temperature is 40 degrees, our children stopped going to school. We have felt a lot of relief since the water is in the school now.” 

Hygiene training and kits 

We also distribute hygiene kits to pupils. These consist of toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap, towel, nail clippers and for older girls, reusable sanitary towels. We supplement these kits, and the provision of new taps and toilets, with hygiene training. In addition to training children in skills such as handwashing, we also train teachers and peer educators so that they can pass those skills on.

In the past year we have trained 20 teachers in school health, and 200 students as peer educators. We have also provided 1,746 hygiene kits to keep children safe and healthy. After these interventions we measured a reduction in incidences of vomiting and diarrhoea of 26%. We also measured an increase in school attendance of 13%.

We recemtly provided libraries and equipped classrooms in four schools in remote communities of Makwanpur. The schools submitted applications for libraries and learning materials to equip reception classrooms, so the class environment would be lively and child-friendly. This in turn motivates children to be at school happily and attend regularly. Before providing support, our team visited the school and met with with the School Management Committee (SMC), teachers and undertook observations. After discussions with the evidence, our team decided to provide support to those schools where most of the children are from marginalised communities. Our support benefited 377 children and 20 teachers from four schools.

 An 11-year child said, “ Before we had empty classrooms and we did not have any learning materials at our school except our textbooks, but we couldn’t buy them because our parents were so poor. One day when I reached school, one of my friends told me there were loads of picture storybooks and other stuff at our school – and then I was amazed! I ran with my friend quickly into that room and I saw so many things which I have never seen before! I started opening all of them as much as possible. I questioned myself when can I read these? And I decided, I will read at least one book every day. I am very happy to see these materials in our school and I can learn so many things from now onwards. Thank you all of those who provided us with these wonderful books and materials”.