Location: School at Gaoua Centre A & B (Gaoua - Burkina Faso).
Status: Completed
Duration: April - June 2023
Repair of latrines at Gaoua Centre A and B schools in Gaoua to improve school and community health, improve education, improve privacy conditions, and improve the environment.
Total cost: 2,421 euros
Zumárraga City Council: 2,000.00
Own funds: 421.00 euros
Gaoua Centre A and B are two schools located in the city of Gaoua, in the province of Poni (southwest of Burkina Faso). Both schools share a playground and latrines. CIM Burkina has already financed a well in these schools. This project responds to a basic social need such as access to decent sanitation for the following reasons related to the health and integrity of the people.
The latrines of these two schools were built more than 30 years ago and have been deteriorating over the years, becoming unusable approximately 10 years ago. The deterioration suffered with the passage of time, the rains, the use, and the poor quality of the construction have caused these two centers to be de facto without latrines. Thanks to the appeal made to the City Council of Zumárraga and with part of our own funds, we have been able to finance the complete repair of these latrines, reinforcing their structure, replacing the doors, reinforcing the cesspits and giving them a general facelift with quality paint.
The need for this type of infrastructure is due to one of the fundamental rights of children: the right to health and to a dignified childhood. This particular project will be managed by the local population, completely committed to obtaining it for the good of their children, a population that will actively participate in the construction, just as it has participated in the choice and opportunity of its execution. The existence of an adequate structure of latrines in the schools is one more factor of improvement in the educational conditions to which every child has the right.
Reducing the number of people who do not have access to latrines or minimum sanitary facilities is one of the Millennium Goals set by the UN for 2015. However, according to data from the World Health Organization, in 2011 more than one billion people still defecated in the open, a practice that is associated with the spread of diseases such as cholera, dysentery or the transmission of intestinal parasites. 3 out of 10 people lack access to safe drinking water services and 6 out of 10 lack access to safely managed sanitation facilities.
Access to sanitation facilities is a fundamental human right that safeguards human health and dignity. Every human being deserves to be safe from the many health problems - such as dysentery, cholera, and other serious infections - that result from poor excreta disposal. Children, who are often the first to get sick and die from these diseases, deserve better treatment. The right to an adequate standard of living and the right to the highest attainable standard of health is enshrined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, a treaty that virtually every country in the world has ratified. If action is not taken immediately, the number of people without adequate sanitation will rise to 4.5 billion in just 20 years. The group most affected will be the poor and marginalized inhabitants of the most densely populated cities that even today fail to provide sanitation services to more than two-thirds of their residents.
If there are no latrines, students are forced to go to the field (around the school) to relieve themselves (as well as the teaching staff), which ends up becoming a serious health problem given the amount of urine and feces around the school, causing the problems described in the previous paragraph. In addition to the source of the infection itself, these fecal remains are a source of attraction for insects, which can also harm the health and well-being of children and adults.
On the other hand, and also within the health problems derived from the absence of latrines, there is a risk, even in some cases, of losing one's life. The African savannah in this area is prolific in snakes and scorpions, which tend to hide in the undergrowth, where children and teachers hide to relieve their needs. Many of the children in the schools have been stung by these scorpions or bitten by snakes, both of which, if not treated quickly enough, can be fatal (as indeed they are in some cases).
Another reason why it is essential to have latrines in schools is closely related to the first reason above, namely the environment, which inevitably deteriorates if children are not able to relieve themselves in an appropriate place.
There is also the problem of privacy, both among students and teaching staff. This problem is aggravated in the case of girls for gender reasons. Girls begin to have their periods at 13 or 14 years of age, so they often have to change their clothes (disposable or not) in a secluded place due to the modesty that this entails for obvious reasons. The lack of privacy in this case, becomes an additional serious problem, especially if we take into account that many of these girls have undergone female genital mutilation (cutting), with the consequent shame that the lack of privacy implies for them, both for the shame of being seen and for the pain that in many cases they suffer when relieving themselves due to this mutilation.
Mutilated girls have a special reservation about their vulva being seen by other people, whether they are of the same gender or not, whether they are their teachers or not. In addition to the trauma of having gone through this unfortunate practice, there is the trauma of lacking privacy for the most intimate acts, such as being able to go to an enclosed place to relieve themselves or change their clothes when it is appropriate according to their menstruation.
In addition, in the absence of adequate facilities, most of these girls do not attend school during their menstruation, creating a strong school discrimination.
Moreover, Burkina Faso is not exempt from the gender-based violence that affects the entire planet. The fact that girls and young women have to go away from school to relieve themselves can make them easy targets for sexual assault and/or rape, as in fact happens with alarming frequency.
Finally, by facilitating improved access to school, we will be preventing the scourge of child labor, which is rampant among girls who do not attend school.
In short, this measure is expected to increase child health, as well as improve the dignity and privacy of individuals. The existence of adequate sanitation facilities improves the quality of education and has an impact on environmental maintenance, helping to keep the environment clean of waste and avoiding a serious public health problem.
The construction of the latrines was completed in December 2022 without major difficulties and has already been delivered to the Provincial Directorate of Education.
