Webinar on
Innovative & Affordable Handwashing Stations in Schools on 1st May 2020 3.00 – 4.30 p.m. (IST)
For registration send email to: asci.wins@gmail.com
Speakers
1. Lead Presentation on globally implemented low-cost handwash station model (10 minutes):
(a) Dr. Y. Malini Reddy and Dr. Priyanka Patkar, ASCI2. Implementation experiences (20 minutes):
(a) Experiences from the Asia, Africa and more – Dr. Bella Monse, Giz
(b) Experiences from India – Dr. Pratibha Singh, Unicef India3. Governments’ role, challenges, sources of fund, support required
Role of corporates, philanthropists, ASCI and CIPS in promoting handwashing with soap (15 minutes):
(a) Mr. Nellayappan, Directorate of School Education, Kohima, Nagaland
(b) Prof. Srinivas Chary, Director, ASCI
(c) Dr. Harsh Sharma, Director (IC), CIPS
Context:
As COVID-19 continues to spread, impacts caused by the virus has thrust the importance of pandemic and contingency planning into the forefront. Schools with poor water, sanitation and hygiene facilities, are high-risk environments for children.
Availability of handwashing stations with water supply and soap are associated with improved handwashing practices which in turn leads to improved health and educational outcomes. However, handwashing rates in India continue to remain low directly impacting the disease burden and increasing the risk of infections. India has more than 253 million students studying in its 1.53 million schools. While it is reported that 95-98%1 of the schools have provision for handwash facility, an overwhelming majority of the schools do not have designated and enough facilities to ensure 100% handwash with soap before mid-day meal.
Improvement in access to handwashing facilities is important to significantly prevent further transmission, reduce the impacts of the outbreak and support control measures especially in school settings. Simple solutions can be adapted for building functional, low cost facilities where financial resources, water and soap availability is limited. Small measures can have big impacts in schools.
The objective of this webinar is to help governments and other entities involved in WASH in schools
to identify suitable handwash solutions for quick deployment in schools before they reopen for the
forthcoming academic year.
Learning Objectives:
- To showcase simple and easy to implement handwash stations suitable for different contexts, including water scarce settings
- To discuss suitability of the models in terms of affordability, ease of implementation, ease of maintenance, ease of usage.
- To discuss the related behavior change approaches for inculcating regular practice of handwash with soap among children.
Webinar Outline:
- Presentations: 45 minutes
- Discussion/Q&A: 45 minutes
Target Audience:
- State and District nodal officers of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan
- State and District education officers
- Representatives of development partners and NGOs
- Corporates and philanthropists
- Academics and WASH Consultants
