Throughout the world,
- 2.4 billion people live without improved sanitation (World Health Organization (WHO)/UNICEF 2015).
- One in ten people has no choice but to defecate in the open (WHO/UNICEF 2015).
- Diarrhoea caused by poor sanitation and unsafe water kills 315,000 children every year (WAS-Hwatch 2016).
- Disease transmission at work, mostly caused by poor sanitation and hygiene practices, causes 17% of all workplace deaths (International Labour Organization (ILO) 2003).
- Loss of productivity due to illnesses caused by lack of sanitation and poor hygiene practices is estimated to cost many countries up to 5% of GDP (Hutton 2012)
Our Kipawa Christmas Appeal
We have been so pleased in 2016 to have begun working with a second primary school in the Ruiru area - Oaklands School. Oaklands School is a more rural school than Mukuyu and is on a coffee plantation. The school's buildings and facilities are in a fairly run-down state, much like Mukuyu was five years ago.
The toilets are in such a bad state - the back wall has collapsed - that they can't be used. This means that the children have to use the bush, which is unsanitary and, particularly for the girls, unsafe.
This Christmas we would love to give the gift of new, safe toilets to the children at Oaklands School - and what better day to kickstart our Christmas Appeal than on World Toilet Day? It will cost around £7,500 to build two new toilet blocks for the girls and boys at Oaklands School but whatever little you can give will go a long way to helping.