On April 16th 2015 Dlo Pou Viv launched its WASH program at Ecole Mixte Communautaire de Blanchard located in La Plaine, Haiti. WASH is an acronym standing for Water Sanitation and Hygiene Education. Dlo Pou Viv promotes this program to accelerate equitable and sustain access to, and use of, safe water and basic sanitation services. This will improve personal hygiene within the students of the school, and help to increase total hours spent in school.
Over 250 hygiene kits were distributed to the children of the school. The children played games, won prizes and interacted with the volunteers led by DPV’s VP of Health Education Guerline Pierre. Dlo Pou Viv aims to train and empower the staff and students to help them recognize the importance of personal hygiene, water conservation and sustainability. Schools that lack access to basic water supply and sanitation services will have an increased incidence of major childhood illnesses among their students. In exchange a high percentage of children will suffer from intestinal infections like cholera.
Cholera is an infection of the intestine caused by parasites and bacteria. It is spread mostly by water that has been contaminated with human feces containing the bacteria. These parasites consume nutrients, aggravate malnutrition and causes diarrhea. 88% of diarrheal disease is caused by unsafe drinking water, inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene. In the near future, the Staff will be trained on how to conduct the WASH program which will teach all students how to test the community water supply and or source.
This process is designed to highlight the importance of safe and clean drinking water. TheWASH program project booklet will contain detailed information on ongoing and planned activities on school hygiene, sanitation and water. This booklet will also inform the staff by including documents, technical notes, forms and other resources: a simple step-by-step tool that can be used to understand the procedures of the WASH program.
Dlo Pou Viv motivate pupils, teachers and staff to give feed back on how the program is being implemented and the improvement within the school. They are currently working with ADIHA (Association des Ingenieurs Haitiens et Americans) towards building a well that will be placed on the school grounds for the school and the nearby community. They educate the community for which the well will be placed so that we can advance community interest in maintaining clean water, personal hygiene, sanitation, recycling and waste water management initiatives.
Dlo Pou Viv have raised approximately $2500 towards the water well, total cost of wellis $5000. They hope to influence a generation through this personal hygiene and sanitation campaign,that will be recognized and respected by both the Haitian government and private sectors. For more information about how you can donate or volunteer please contact them here
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