Benin Improves School Health
As the sun rises over the Gourou Primary School in northern Benin, six students can usually be found arriving before the rest of their classmates. They are members of a new hygiene club that works to improve sanitation at their school.
“We wanted to form this club to be in better health and to help the environment,” says 11-year-old Aboubacar Karibou, who is secretary of the club.
The hygiene club meets at the Gourou public primary school in northeastern Benin. They help keep their learning environment clean.
Photo by Jennifer Lazuta/CRS
Previously, trash could often be seen strewn across the courtyard, and there were no garbage cans. When someone needed to go to the bathroom, the only real option was to go behind a big bush or a crumbling mud brick wall. There was no water for hand washing. Students often fell sick with diarrhea, which led to frequent absences from school.
But now, as part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition program, which is known locally as Keun Faaba III, the hygiene club is in place to improve and maintain good sanitation conditions in all schools that participate in the program. Members receive training on healthy water, sanitation and hygiene practices.
Each morning before classes start, the club has a quick meeting to discuss what needs to be done that day. Members are then tasked with ensuring that various hygiene chores are completed: sweeping the courtyard, emptying trash cans, filling up hand washing stations with water stocking them with soap, and cleaning the latrines.
Bashiru Goundou, a member of the hygiene club, helps sweep the steps outside his classroom each morning.
Photo by Jennifer Lazuta/CRS
They are also charged with teaching their fellow students good hygiene practices and ensuring that the others also play a role in maintaining the cleanliness of their school.
“If there are any problems, I report to the secretary so that he can record the issue and then we see as a group how to fix it,” says the club’s treasurer, Sofie Korokou. “It is important that our school is clean because that brings good health.”
The school’s volunteer cooks, who prepare nutritious daily mid-day meals for the students as part of the program, were also trained on good hygiene practices.
“Good hygiene is important when you cook,” says Koua Fatou Salimane, who has been a cook at the school for the past two years. “If I am cooking, first I wash my hands. This helps avoid sickness. I also sweep the kitchen before cooking and wash the clean pots a second time to ensure there is no dust. We’re also sure to keep the animals away because if they eat or drink from a pot, this can contaminate the food and the children can fall sick.”
Since the creation of the hygiene club, each classroom now has a trash bin and broom. There are dedicated latrines and urinals, which are segregated by gender. Hand-washing stations, known locally as tippy taps, have been installed outside each classroom and the latrines, as well as next to the kitchen where the volunteers cook.
Students wash their hands with soap and water from “tippy taps” before eating lunch.
Photo by Jennifer Lazuta/CRS
While there is still more to be done—like installing new doors on the latrines and a more permanent water source—the students and teachers say the cleanliness of the school has remarkedly improved, even after just a few months since creation of the club. A new Clean and Healthy School certification recognizes the top 25 schools participating in the project.
As part of the Keun Faaba III project, the hygiene-nutrition component is implementing the Clean and Healthy School certification. At the end of each school year, the best schools are certified as water, sanitation and hygiene-friendly schools. The top 25 hygiene clubs will also receive a certificate of recognition. The hope is that this school can be recognized as one of the best Clean and Healthy Schools and the hygiene club rewarded for its daily efforts.
“Today we see a change,” says Gniré Yarou Dafia, an advisor for water, sanitation, hygiene and nutrition within the Keun Faaba project.
“The students are much healthier. They miss less class. Good hygiene helps so much. They are also bringing good hygiene habits home with them.”
The McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition program (MGD21 - also named KEUN FAABA III - in local language) is a five-year (2021-2026), multi-sectoral project funded by the United States Department of Agriculture and implemented by Catholic Relief Services in Benin. In partnership with the American Institutes for Research, Caritas Benin, and the Organization for Sustainable Development, Reinforcement and Self-promotion of Community Structures, and alongside a cohort of national ministries, Keun Faaba III aims to provide daily meals to schoolchildren, improve student literacy via strengthened teacher capacity, promote good sanitation practices, and ensure the quality of locally sourced school lunch ingredients. The project works with more than 110,000 children, teachers, and parents in 168 schools across four municipalities. To help increase economic activities and help families afford school enrollment fees, parents are encouraged to take part in Savings and Internal Lending Community groups.
