Hygiene Education Programme
I initiated this programme in 2007 while I was on my elective. Originally it was an idea that I put to The Youth Movement for Environment (TYME) and the Gorkha Women's Association (GWA). The aim was to develop a simple programme to educate people in the remote and poor areas around Gorkha on how to improve their living environment in terms of hygiene.
It was decided to do the project in schools; this way, there would be easy access to a group of interested, open-minded people who were already gathered in one place. Furthermore, it was hoped that the children would be able to pass on the knowledge they learned to their parents and friends at home. Now the programme has been established to run twice a year, rotating around four different schools every two years, giving a twelve-week course to class 4 and 5 in each school.
The first programme ran successfully during September and October of 2007 in Shri Gorakh Kali Primary School, a very poor school located an hour's walk away from Gorkha town. Lessons, run by volunteers from TYME and GWA, covered topics such as clean drinking water, peronal hygiene, keeping the home environment clean and use of toilets. They included practical sessions, for example making water filters from plastic bottles. The Opening and Closing Ceremonies included giving a repeated short test, as a way of measuring how much the children had learnt during the programme. The school was also given buckets and sweeping brushes, and the children were given each a bar of soap, nail clippers, a toothbrush and a tube of toothpaste to try to encourage them to get into the habit of using these items.
I left shortly after the beginning of the programme, and TYME and GWA took over the planning and implementation of the project. Now my role involves monitoring the programme and acting as a mediator between GDHEDS UK and the programme co-ordinators to arrange financial support. I since went back to Gorkha for this purpose, and the programme has now moved on to Shree Prithvi Narayan Bal Vikas Primary School. This is a school of 120 students stituated on the hill just above Gorkha with a very poor, low caste catchment area. Some changes to the programme this time include recruitment of people outside TYME and GWA who can give lessons on, for example, diseases and how they are transmitted. The total funding of the programme in each school is £110, given by GDHEDS, making it an inexpensive project that reaches many children, and through them, their families and communities.
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