Each year in India, over 158,000 children under 6 years of age die of WASH-related diseases with countless more suffering the lifelong consequences of malnourishment. Children are the greatest stakeholders in a community’s health and so our flagship education programs are all child-centered initiatives. We invest in building a foundation of social infrastructure that supports long-term improvements in physical infrastructure. WASH-related illnesses (e.g. diarrheal disease, respiratory infections, etc) are a highly preventable problem and we hope to use our hygiene education and youth leadership programs as platforms for addressing both the social and infrastructural barriers.
Healthy Schools Education Program
In order to create long-term and holistic change in a school environment, all students must be actively engaged from the beginning. Therefore, we have developed a 10-month teaching model that pairs peer-to-peer education and physical infrastructure as a method of fostering behavior change among children. With live performances and interactive activities—led by Kai Babu, the HMS mascot—our Healthy Schools Education Program is both fun and educational.
Our multimedia curriculum makes use of music, images and scientific knowledge to teach first and second standard students the basics of hand hygiene and why hand-washing is a healthy habit. The installation of soap or hand sanitizer in an HMS-sponsored school is launched with a school-wide workshop that introduces students to HMS, Kai Babu and the importance of hand hygiene. Subsequently, college student volunteers are assigned to classrooms that they commit to visiting twice a month to enforce proper hand-washing habits. The first visit of the month is composed of an activity from the interactive storybook “Kai Babu and the Evil Germ King,” which breaks down the science of germs and its relationship to illness into an easy to understand narrative for children. The second visit involves a knowledge-based lesson, demonstrations and hands-on activities that introduce students to germ theory, reminders of when to wash hands, and an explanation of how food and water can become contaminated. At the end of each visit, volunteers lead students to sing the “Hand-washing Song” which uses music and hand motions to summarize the ultimate purpose of each lesson.
In conjunction with our Hand in Hand Mentor Program, primary students fourth standard and above are also guided through activities on hand hygiene with an emphasis on science, developing each student’s individual opinion, and leadership. Once a month for a duration of eight months, college student volunteers will engage higher standard students with microscope activities, public health and newspaper discussions, and competitions that provide an opportunity to students to demonstrate excellence and creativity. At the end of the program, students will take a field trip to the Agastya Center to interact with science demonstrations—a component of our active partnership with Agastya.
We hope to bring the conversation to teachers, parents and the wider community by showing students how they can take an active role in improving their own health and the health of their community.
Developing WASH Infrastructure
Physical resources and education must go hand in hand. To enable students to practice the hygiene habits encouraged in our education programs, we are committed to long-term development of water, sanitation and hygiene infrastructure within HMS-sponsored primary schools. At present, we provide and maintain a constant supply of liquid soap in our schools with sufficient access to water and have piloted hand sanitizer in two particularly under-resourced schools. With soap and sanitizer as a first step, we plan to expand this basic necessity to more primary schools in Hubli while beginning improvements on the water and sanitation facilities in our current schools. Our staff will conduct individual school infrastructure evaluations to determine relative need, and will subsequently modify the educational component to include appropriate infrastructure-specific content.