Water is
essential to any living things here on earth especially to humans. It serves a
lot of functions in daily living. It can be used to clean things, to generate
energy, and a lot more things, but most especially, to quench thirst and to
nourish the body. Pollution has great impact on the drinking water. As
pollution, may it be water, air or land, increases, the amount of drinking
water is decreasing. The potability of
water now is always taken in to account when it is used for human consumption.
Water can be a vessel for a lot of diseases like diarrhea, typhoid fever and
cholera if not properly handled and consumed by humans. It is important to
determine the safety of water when it comes for human consumption.
Based on Raising Even More Clean Hands: Joint Call to
Action, schools can serve as an effective entry point to implementing
community-based programmes and putting public health policies into action. Children
are fast learners and adapt their behaviours more easily than adults. Children
are also effective role models. They may question existing practices in their households
and choose to demonstrate good hygiene. What they learn at school is likely to
be passed on to their peers and siblings and to their own children if they
become parents. Direct engagement with students, along with interventions to
reach parents and others in the community, can lead to the adoption of good
behaviours and improved health. Some studies have found evidence of households
adopting facilities and practices that originated in schools. The key is to
promote simple messages and low cost approaches through schools.
“W.A.S.H. in schools” is a training of both
teachers and students about proper water handling and hygiene based on modules
presented by the W.A.S.H. of UNICEF and Project Wet: Healthy Water, Healthy Habits,
Healthy People of USAID.
The
activity was done in each classroom from Grade 1 to 6. A total of 88 out of 124
students of the Goaw elementary school participated in the event.
The
students were taught on how to properly handle water through clean hands. Also,
new ways to utilize resources were exposed to both teachers and students.
Continuous interventions in the school can possibly impact the health practices
in each household, thus adoption of good behaviors and can improve health.
