Using play based approach to address WASH

Pupils of Stara during a life skills session on Hand Washing

Tuesdays and Thursdays are always packed days for WASH implementers to execute life skills and sports sessions at Stara Rescue Center and School. The new term and new games for tennis came with a clearer implication of the strength of using play to reach out to children with lessons around WASH, Literacy and numeracy.

One Tuesday, when coach Asha was held up and wouldn't make it for a session at Stara school became my center of interest to unearth how much the children from Stara School loved sport in comparison to WASH sessions. Together with my colleague, we studied the behavior of children in the absence of coach Asha and decided to further  the research

Normally, Sadili’s staff arrival at the school will attract the attention of all the children either in their class rooms or outside playing. The children would shout, and scream in joy as they chant songs because they know its play time with "coach tennis" as they had named Asha.

We decide that one day  coach Asha would be left behind so as to see the difference in our arrival at the school.As we entered the compound of Stara School, there were some normal excitements from the children, shouting the name Sadili and P.E congruently. We thereafter alerted the coach who was standing just outside the gate to join us. This made us dissolve into laughter as the children already organized in groups screamed in  excitement calling out the name coach, tennis and others shouting ‘game yetu’-our game.

Children during play session with coach Adongo

In conclusion, play based approach to address the situation of WASH and reaching out to out of school children is the best choice made by the court of dreams project that suits well the different categories in ages of the targeted groups. Children of Stara as a sample here give a clearer message that when play is involved the interest of children to learn is attained hence driving home the message of WASH, Literacy and Education.

Discovering the entry point for year 3 of the project

Data for baseline surveys are always the measure to clearly know where to start and the needs to address in reference to the set objectives and outcomes of project implementation.

For the three months of the 2nd quarter for the court of dreams project, baselines studies has been on going with implementers zealous to know the entry point for the newly selected sites for year 3, that includes, Stara Rescue center a school in Darajani, St Vincent De Paul in Olympic and Undugu Basic Education Unit located in Silanga, all located in Kibera slum.

All the tools were put to task including but not limited to; Children’s interviews that investigates the knowledge on toilet use, Standardized tests gauge the level of literacy and numeracy of children, Behavior dos and don’ts that tries to find out that understanding of safe WASH practices, Parents surveys, Concentration and memory games, Quick test games, WASH 2 that handles hand washing practices and monthly school attendance records for children.

Picking on one of the tools’ data from baseline that seem holistic in reference to all the designed M&E tools is Behaviors dos and don’ts. This tool was put to task with twelve pictures with behaviors around WASH.Children are shown the pictures one at a time and probed to tell whether it has a Good, Bad or an in-between option for those who were undecided on the first two options.

A good job done by implementers brought about a view of the state at baseline which is amazing and really defines why intervention is important in the selected sites for year 3.Data analysis showed results such as on the third picture with a child eating food covered with flies, out of 118 participants 29 of them said it is a good behavior, 8 participants were undecided whether it’s good or bad, while 81 said it is a bad WASH practices. This informs the wide spread ways of poor food hygiene practices in the community. Food vendors are always less concern of swam of flies on fish, fruits, and vegetables on a display table. Children learn from observations hence to them food covered with flies is not a bad behavior as their surrounding nurtures them.

Children also informed on the burying feaces as a Safe WASH practice to being a bad behaviors as majority of the participants in the sample saying it’s a bad behavior. Reading through their reasoning and comments, when feaces are buried this becomes interference to farming or people can still come into contact with the buried feaces.

The baseline studies therefore has informed implementers and the team at Sadili at large on the key areas and approaches to make  sustainable impact through reaching out to children, teachers and parents using various learning manuals as designed by the social educator. From the monitoring and evaluation desk a project is made of a commendable change at the end of the project in September 2019.