1 million for water in and around schools in Ethiopia

Great news: over the next three years we will invest no less than 1 million euros in clean drinking water at and around schools in Ethiopia. This is a follow-up to our successful project in the same region and we are now also working together with Amref. This time our French ambassador Castalie also contributes greatly by raising funds among her customers.

Together we will provide a total of 35,100 people with clean drinking water, safe sanitation and good hygiene. We do this at twenty schools, but also in the communities around those schools, for example by building kiosks on the outside of those schools, including small shops.

Menstruation

Menstruation is one of the most normal things in the world. Yet for many girls it is a problem every month. In Ethiopia, 83.9% of girls cannot practice good menstrual hygiene. A large proportion, 81.4%, do not have menstrual products such as sanitary towels and tampons.

Every year, girls in sub-Saharan Africa miss more than 2 months of school because they cannot buy products such as sanitary towels and tampons. Or because there are no toilets or showers at school where they can change.

With our program we reach 15,300 girls in the twenty schools. By building safe toilets, sinks and changing rooms, we hope that the absentee rate of girls at school will decrease by 50% in the next 2.5 years.

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By building safe toilets, sinks and changing rooms, we hope that the absenteeism rate of girls from school will decrease by 50% in the next 2.5 years.

Frank van der Tang, co-founder Made Blue

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Entrepreneurship

With the lessons learned over the past four years, the new WASH at and around school program focuses on building water kiosks in schools. During school hours, the kiosks provide safe and hygienic sanitary facilities.

The facilities are run by local micro-entrepreneurs and are also open to community members: toilet and shower use and the sale of sanitary items for a small fee.

The proceeds are used to maintain and expand local facilities and to guarantee a permanent income for the facility managers.

Castalie

Castalie produces elegant water coolers for restaurants and offices in the French market. To make customers extra aware of the importance of clean drinking water, they also support Made Blue.

For example, founder Thibault Lamarque went more with the impact trip to Ethiopia in 2020. That is where the ambition arose to provide as many schools as possible with the same facilities as the school we visited at the time.

INTEGRAL APPROACH

This new project will run for the next three years, from now until December 2023, and we opt for an integrated approach:

We are renovating existing WASH facilities at ten schools, such as toilets and washbasins. In addition, we are going to build changing rooms for girls who are menstruating. It is important that they have a safe place at school.
We are also going to build new WASH facilities, such as toilets and washbasins, at ten other schools, as well as separate changing rooms for girls who are menstruating. In addition, we will develop environmentally friendly menstrual waste disposal facilities.
We build water points and safe toilets near schools so that people in the immediate vicinity of a school also have access to clean water and good sanitation.
We are going to encourage young people and women to set up small businesses around the sale of clean water and the sale and production of menstrual products.
In addition, we will urge governments and manufacturers to lower the price of these products. This makes products such as sanitary towels and tampons available to large groups of girls and women. Within our program we want to improve availability for almost 20,000 girls and women.
And finally, we will provide training on clean water, good hygiene and good menstrual hygiene to local government officials, teachers, caregivers, girls, women, boys and men.

Clean water for all

That’s our mission! Still 771,000,000 don’t have access to water.
We are working in an entrepreneurial way to be able to invest in safe water.

Look at what you can do

You might want to read these updates too:

Update Wash at schools: the first half of the year

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Update Wash at schools: girls back to school

In Ethiopia we are working hard on water in and around schools. In this update you can read what we have already done. This is especially important for girls.

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