It's really quite hard to imagine.
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| Chisolo School, Tanzania |
You might share one toilet with hundreds of other students - with predictable consequences for sanitation. Worse still, the only water available to drink will likely make you sick. It is no wonder that children around the world lose 272 million school days every year to diarrhoea.
And more than an obstacle to their education, this issue represents a grave health threat. According to UNICEF, among children under 14, more than 20 per cent of deaths and disabilities are attributable to unsafe water, inadequate sanitation or insufficient hygiene. Hookworm infestations, for example, threaten the long-term development of one in three school-aged children by draining vital nutrition from their bodies.
There are so many unfair challenges facing children in the developing world, but this is one that can be easily resolved. Leverage your hard earned fundraising, and bring a full water, sanitation, and hygiene program to a school in desperate need.
We have already seen the extraordinary benefits.
Wasrag has collaborated with Procter & Gamble, H2O for Life, and Africare to select 30 schools in Malawi and Tanzania (15 in each).
Through the Procter & Gamble Children's Safe Drinking Water Program, schools, and later families of school children, will receive PUR (Purifier of Water) packets, a simple product shown to be effective in reducing school absenteeism in the developing world by providing clean drinking water.
PUR will provide clean water, while more permanent solutions - improved water systems - are installed. Sanitation facilities will be improved and expanded. Connecting this investment to knowledge, hygiene education programs will be provided in school.
This brings real change, and hope, to school children, and their families.
H2O for Life will source partner schools and raise awareness and funds in the USA and Canada.
Through Wasrag, Rotary Clubs are invited to participate - a club can adopt a school, or can join with other clubs to provide the $5300 required for each school. The Rotary Club(s) donation of $5300 will be matched by $22,600 per school from our partners.
This collaboration is built on a commitment to strategies and activities based upon solid scientific standards. The partners have a common vision of improving the lives of people in the developing world, through the provision of clean drinking water, sanitation and hygiene education.
For more information about the program click here to email the project manager. Download a copy of the brochure. To see the full list of schools, click here, or for full instructions on how to see the listing on our website click here.
To indicate your interest in participating, please complete this form: USA form or Canada form (email instructions are included on the form).
Join in and make major change in the lives of 22,250 school children, their families and communities.
