The WASH for Social Change (W4SC) project is designed to improve the WASH and Socio-Economic situation of 2500 beneficiaries in 5 model schools and 5 communities with Tamale Metropolis and Sagnarigu Municipal Assembly in the Northern Region of Ghana. The project is a joint collaboration between AFORD Foundation and Information Technology Foundation to stimulate change in the poor attitudes of both direct and indirect beneficiaries towards WASH activities.
The Northern region has one of the lowest Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) coverage in Ghana - 61% for water against a national average of 83% (CWSA, 2010) and <10% for sanitation against a national average of 14%. Open defecation is estimated to be 73% in the region (EHSD, 2012). Hygiene standards and behaviour are simply unimpressive. As a result of the poor WASH situation in Northern region, diarrhoea is among the 10 top most ailments/diseases commonly reported at out-patient departments.
To improve the health and socio-economic well-being of 5 beneficiary communities and 5 schools through improved hygiene practices and access to safe water and sanitation including demand driven social accountability issues with regards to WASH allocations to duty bearers. To increase access to and use of safe water facilities for 5 schools by the end of 2019 To increase access to and use of improved sanitation facilities for 5 schools and communities by the end of 2019
As identified above, the WASH challenges in the schools are multi-dimensional. In summary, they include limited access, weak institutional structures, and poor attitudes. We would adopt a comprehensive approach that combines provision of hardware and software WASH interventions. The hardware would cover facilities such as pipe extension, rainwater harvesting tanks, hand washing facilities and institutional latrines, while the software issues include animation, training, hygiene promotion.
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).
