WaterAid in collaboration with Kimberly Clark Corporation have unveiled toilet facilities and running water for the Army Children Primary School in Ikorodu North Local Council Development Area of Lagos State.
At the unveiling of the toilets and water facilities on Thursday in Lagos, the Chairman of Ikorodu North LCDA, Mr Adeola Banjo, expressed gratitude to WaterAid and Kimberly Clark Corporation for assisting the school.
Newsmen reports that the Sanitation Improvement Project focused on some selected schools in urban and peri-urban communities of Lagos.
Represented by Mr Niyi Odugbesi, Executive Secretary of the Council, Banjo underscored the importance of the project and enjoined the children to make adequate use of the facility.
Mrs Grace Uwadiale, Sanitation and Hygiene Consultant, WaterAid, noted that the Sanitation and Hygiene Improvement Project was initiated by WaterAid with support from the Kimberly Clark Corporation.
Uwadiale said that the project was implemented in public schools, Primary Healthcare Centres as well as communities in Ikorodu North LCDA.
She said that it was a WaterAid initiative funded by the Kimberly Clark Corporation for communities in Ikorodu North and Ojodu LCDA.
She said that among the various criteria to be met for the project was the availability of water.
“So, this school met the criteria. One of the criteria that we had for them to be selected was the availability of water because the project is supporting sanitation and hygiene.
“Though, we have other projects that are also supporting provision of water in addition to sanitation and hygiene.
“What the project has done is in two phases; we have two components of the project.
“We have the hardware component, which takes care of the rehabilitation of sanitation and hygiene facilities in the schools, as well as the primary health care centres.
“One of the things we did was to train them on the software component, which is the hygiene behaviour change campaign that looked at the five key major hygiene behaviours.
“And one of those key major hygiene behaviours is menstrual hygiene, where the project has been able to support in training the beneficiaries and their teachers.
“We had a training for the teachers on menstrual hygiene and health management.
“The teachers were trained on how to make reusable pads and they were trained on how the children, or even girls and women in general, can maintain good hygiene management during their menstrual period,” Uwadiale said.
She added that with the provision of sanitation hygiene improvement facility, the female pupils had become very comfortable in coming to school.
Also. Mrs Florence Adu, Head Teacher of the school, appealed to the chairman of the LCDA to rehabilitate the school as most of its buildings were not fit for human habitation.
Adu expressed gratitude to WaterAid and Kimberly Clark for the provision of hygiene improvement facility in the school.
Newsmen reports that urgent attention is needed in rehabilitating the school. The roof of most of the classrooms are bad and are not fit for human habitation.
