Phase 3: Chichiri Building of 20 Toilets
Chichiri Primary School was built to house a total number of 20 toilets (14 for the girls and 6 for the boys). Already a highly insufficient number of toilets for its population of 1510 students, the bathroom situation is grave as only 3 toilets, 2 for the girls and 1 for the boys, have been functional for years. A desperate health concern, when we visited the school premises in 2019, the conditions of the bathrooms were such that no human being should at all be using them.
The toilet situation is desperate and needs to be addressed immediately. It is a dire health concern that is impacting the learning experience of students, especially that of young girls, who in particular need access to decent toilets during their menstrual cycles. Ensuring the functionality and sustainability of the toilets will both require that the toilets are repaired including the purchase of new commodes, urinals and sinks and fixing of toilet pipes, and also that the water source for the toilets is localized.
According to UNICEF in their report on Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Education (WASH) in Schools, the global acceptable number of number of students to a toilet is between 20-40 children per toilet. Therefore, a school like Chichiri Primary School with its 1510 students requires the minimum standard of 37-40 toilets. As the school has 3 functional toilets and 17 toilets that are going to be repaired in phase one of the project, based on this global standard, the commitment in phase three of the project is to build an additional 20 toilets. Upon completion of the work, the total number of bathroom facilities at Chichiri Primary School would be 40 toilets, 25 female toilets (including 2 accessible facilities) and 15 male toilets and urinals (including 1 accessible facility). The projected figures below include infrastructure and the building of the whole sanitation system to ensure that the toilet facilities are thoroughly functional.
For phase three of the project we will need to raise $29,000.