SWASH+

The Sustaining and Scaling School Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Plus Community Impact (SWASH+) is a five-year program, which, through applied research, will identify, develop, and test innovative approaches to school-based water, sanitation, and hygiene interventions in Nyanza Province, Kenya. Experimentation and applied research will be used to determine whether school-based programs can provide a platform for increasing permanent access for schools and communities to these services, and help determine how these programs can be sustained. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation joined the Global Water Challenge (GWC) in funding the program.

In the first three years of the SWASH+ program, 300 schools will receive support for hygiene education. Teachers from will learn to treat their school water supply with chlorine solution and hand washing stations will be installed. To reinforce good hygiene practice, teachers will also establish School Health Clubs to teach students appropriate hygiene techniques. In 180 schools, SANA, the local partner, will build or improve latrines. Additionally, community members will participate in developing new water points in 60 communities where there is no water supply in the school. From the third year, consortium partners will support the Government of Kenya to bring best practices fully to scale in Nyanza Province, covering a total of 1520 schools between donor- and government-led implementation. If these techniques are proven effective at the provincial level, the best practices will be used to establish a framework for national implementation and government-led scale up of the most effective interventions.

The objectives of the SWASH+ program are to work with the Government of Kenya to improve access to safe water, sanitation, and hygiene education in Nyanza Province by:

1. Identifying, developing, and testing innovative approaches to school- and community-based water, sanitation, and hygiene interventions that promote sustainability and scalability;
2. Providing and testing an integrated safe water, sanitation, and hygiene promotion program in schools and communities that maximizes impact, equity, sustainability, and cost-effectiveness; and
3. Developing and implementing a scalable model to deliver and finance safe water, sanitation, and hygiene promotion to schools and communities.

SWASH+ successfully completed its first year. An annual meeting of partners and donors was held in Kisumu, Kenya, from September 17-19, 2007 to discuss progress and plans for the coming year. The baseline survey of schools was undertaken this spring and 100 project schools were selected. Teacher training has been successfully completed and the hygiene promotion program is in 90 of the selected schools. Students and teachers also practice point-of-use water treatment in these schools. SANA completed 34 latrines, and with support from the communities has begun construction in an additional 33 schools, bringing the total to more than expected for the first year. In parallel, a de-worming campaign was conducted with the Ministry of Health, which contributed the medicines and technical staff. Project staff had many successful, high level meetings with the government, setting the stage for successful scale-up of the program. It is anticipated that in the coming months, 50 schools will receive investments in sanitation. Despite weather-related delays, SWASH is being implemented in a timely manner, and an additional 100 schools are expected to be reached in year two as planned. This year, more than 35 communities have been surveyed for the water credit package and many have applied for loans for a water system that could be used by the community, in addition to the school. Partners predict that connecting community access to water with the school will increase participation in the schools and will be increase the transfer of healthy hygiene practices to the entire family.