“Wash what you have!”

However without water the children cannot wash anything, they cannot wash their hands before eating, nor their spoon and plate or their clothes. Also their food cannot be cleaned which is a primary need. Furthermore toilets are not working and cooking is not possible. All this is happening at the school we visited today. Due to heavy electricity problems in this area water cannot be pumped through the pipes and therefore this school is in desperate need of a water-pump!
This water-pump serves two goals since in addition to hygiene and nutrition side, it also can become an “income generating activity” for this school since the whole community could use the water against a small fee.
To give you an idea, a first calculation is that households monthly need for about 15,000kwacha (± 5 dollar) water and there are 500 households in this community. This way the profit for the school would be about 7,5mln kwacha per month! With this money they are planning to buy a large piece of land to start poultry on, another income generating activity. This way this school can become more and more self-sufficient and less dependent on funding!
Note that a water-pump costs about $6000.

This example shows the challenges this school faces can be achieved and turn this school into a role model for other community schools in Zambia!