Lavamanos Launched!

Running water and soap are two things that are so easily taken for granted at home. Hand-washing is a habit, and good hygiene an expectation. In Uspha-Uspha the situation is very different.

In many homes, there simply aren't the resources to maintain a hygienic environment, while in the kindergarten, for example, if the children wash their hands at all, a whole class will share the same small bowl of water. Unsurprisingly, the vast majority of the 150 children in the centre suffer from diarrhoea almost constantly, as the cycle of bacterial contamination is never broken.

A generous donation from one of our previous volunteers meant that we finally had the means to go about finding a solution to this problem.

Since running water isn't available in the baños (bathrooms) at the kindergarten, we needed to think of another way we could improve hand-washing, which would be economical, sustainable and, most importantly, effective.

Recycled plastic-bottle pilas (taps) always prove a great success with the kids during our SODIS workshops - they are all really excited to practice washing their hands properly with soap and running water. So, our next step was to see how we might go about installing pilas in the kindergarten building, so that the children could wash their hands effectively every day, and learn about the importance of good hygiene.

With the help of Don Gabino, Proyecto Horizonte's resident caretaker, we came up with the idea of removing the redundant sink units from the baños and building some troughs, which would be low enough that even the youngest kids of 18 months could use the pilas which we would hang above them. Now, a few weeks after buying the materials:

And Don Gabino working hard, we have our first hand-washing station (lavamanos) in the guardería!

[Photos of the finished article coming soon!]

Not only should these make hand-washing much easier within the kindergarten, but also be a step towards teaching the children the importance of good hygiene at home too. Jule’s hygiene and tooth-brushing initiative is due to start next week and will be another really great way for the children to learn about how to avoid bacteria and stay healthy as well!