Laos

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Enhancing Girls' Education through School Sanitation and Hygiene Promotion

UNICEF New Zealand was approached by the UNICEF office in Lao Peoples Republic in 2005 for assistance in funding a 5 year project to enhance girls’ education and hygiene. Through its Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Programme, UNICEF Lao PDR is working to address poverty, reduce mortality and foster healthy lifestyles.

The project aims to bring water and sanitation facilities, as well as hygiene and sanitation training, to over half a million people in 1,540 villages and approximately 140,000 children in 700 primary schools.

The main goals of this project:

  • By 2011, household/school latrines and hygiene practices are promoted to ensure children’s rights to survival, growth and development
  • By 2011, at least 80% of households and primary schools in 30 poor districts in the six focus provinces will have access to safe water and sanitation facilities for girls and boys

UNICEF’s key partners for this project are the Ministry of Education and the Laos Youth Union. The wider programme is targeting primary schools and surrounding communities in 5 remote and poor provinces throughout the country - Luangprabang, Khammuane, Savannakhet, Vientiane and Saravane.

To help get these essential messages through to the schoolchildren of Laos, UNICEF is distributing “Blue Boxes” which are interactive educational packages specially developed for schoolchildren that contain games, story cards, songs, posters and other materials containing key hygiene messages. These fun educational tools all highlight the importance of drinking only clean water, washing your hands after going to the toilet and before meals, using proper toilet facilities, healthy eating and food preparation methods.

Key Activities

  • Training provided to 380 teachers and 25 teacher trainers on the use of the “Blue Box” hygiene education kit
  • Hygiene promotion songs created in local languages and 2,050 CDs distributed to schools and communities
  • Singing contest organised for World Water Day 2008
  • Youth radio teams produced and broadcast 209 radio shows promoting key water and hygiene messages

Continued support in all activities is needed until the end of 2010 to meet the project objectives mentioned above.

One of the major outcomes of the project so far is that it created opportunities for the children to participate. A good example is the youth radio activity, which has provided opportunities for boys and girls who live outside the capital to learn media skills and discover how to communicate key hygiene messages to thousands of people. This has given the young participants more confidence in expressing themselves and also widened their career opportunities.

As a result of many factors, this project also provides more opportunities for girls to participate in their educational settings. Hygiene messages are making their way into communities and are encouraging behavioural changes that have a positive impact on health, reduce the incidence of diarrhoea and improve child survival.