Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to Help the Kenyan Schoolchildren

Microsoft’s chairman Bill Gates and her wife Melinda Gates jointly have a foundation which is just for charitable works. This foundation has recently involved in a program in Kenya and in this program the foundation will provide safe water, make people conscious about the sanitary latrine etc. THhis program is called SWASH+ (Sustaining and Scaling School Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Plus Community Impact). I am quoting some of the lines from a Blogging about Bill Gates:

The children, spread over 300 primary schools, will now have access safe water and sanitation and enjoy better hygiene.

In the next five years, the programme, known as SWASH+ (Sustaining and Scaling School Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Plus Community Impact) will identify, develop, and test innovative school-based water, sanitation, and hygiene projects in the province. In addition, the programme will provide valuable information on the costs and benefits of school water, sanitation and hygiene programmes.

A consortium made up of the NGOs CARE, Water Partners International (WPI) and their local implementing partner Sustainable Aid in Africa International (SANA), the Millennium Water Alliance (MWA), the Centre for Global Safe Water at Emory University (CGSW), and the Global Water Challenge will implement an applied research study and government-led upgrading over the next five years.

In the first three years of the SWASH+ programme, 300 teachers will learn to treat their school water supply with chlorine and hand washing stations will be installed. In this project, sanitation will be improved in 180 schools.

Teachers will also establish school health clubs and teach students appropriate hygiene techniques. In addition, 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 Nyanza Province.

It is estimated that more than 3,700 primary schools in the province require safe drinking water and hygiene facilities, and more than 35,000 school latrines are required throughout the province to meet government recommended standards.

n January 2006, a working group of partners from the pilot initiative, potential donors, key government ministries, Unicef, the World Bank Water and Sanitation Programme, and international and Kenya-based NGOs met in Kisumu to discuss lessons learned from this pilot initiative. The meeting also focused on determining next steps in broadening the project.

It seems good that the foundation have taken a good initiative for the development of school children of Kenya. I think they can also operate such program in other countries too. However, it is also needed to materialize the plan taken by the organizers.