Schools are the center of communities and represent opportunity for the next generation – providing a better future for our children. But what if some schools and teachers don’t have what they need to keep children healthy and safe each day at school? What if students are expected to miss classes to collect water, sometimes kilometres away? What if toilets are far away, at risk of collapsing, or lacking any privacy?
What if there is no safe water and no toilets at all?
This is not a worry that parents and teachers should have. Safe drinking water and decent toilets should be basic essentials in every school, everywhere. Unfortunately, it’s not the case for millions of children in the world.
Dirty and unhygienic school environments discourage students, particularly young girls, from attending school. Missing classes causes girls to fall behind in school, often past the point of being able to catch up, leading them to drop out altogether.
The lack of basic water and toilet facilities also affects the quality of education because the best teachers are less willing to work at schools that don’t offer drinking water and hygienic toilets. Consequently, the lack of quality education furthers the pervasive cycle of poverty that only education can break.
And without hygiene education, and the ability to wash hands, disease and illness spread rapidly.
Sixth grade students in class at Ras ZeSillassie Elementary and Junior School in Ethiopia. Photo credit: WaterAid/ Behailu Shiferaw
That’s why WaterAid Canada is delighted to be partnering with Merit Travel who is calling on its employees and clients to be mindful of the broader world around them by supporting WaterAid. Merit’s fall campaign will support WaterAid Canada’s Clean Water for Schools Project in Ethiopia, where only 39% of schools in have safe water and 37% have basic toilets.
WaterAid’s Clean Water for Schools is a five year program that addresses the urgent need to improve poor water, sanitation and hygiene conditions common to many schools in this region of sub-Saharan Africa. Between 2012 and 2017 we aim to reach 120,000 boys and girls attending 170 schools throughout Ethiopia, Uganda and Kenya with access to safe water, toilets and hygiene education.
Access to safe water, basic toilets and hygiene education on school grounds helps to unleash a powerful cycle of opportunity, with healthy children at the heart of it. With these basic services, Merit Travel is making an investment in schoolchildren and the health of future generations, helping children realize their full potential and achieve a more prosperous future.
