Hand of Progress e.V.
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Mission Statement
Progress has many facets! At Hand of Progress e.V., we believe in cultivating a healthy sanitation and hygienic lifestyle in school children from an early age. This helps to improve children's health, school attendance and dignity, prevent girls from dropping out of school due to menstrual hygiene challenges. We hope the impact of our work will influence tomorrow's leaders who are today's children to the extent that they will not tolerate poor sanitation and lack of water and hygiene in schools. Hand of Progress e.V. is committed to helping children and the girl child in Kenyan rural schools by enabling access to safely managed water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services.
About This Cause
Hand of Progress e.V. is a non-profit organisation located in Bielefeld, Germany. It was founded in January 2017 with the goal of reaching out to needy children in public schools who are unable to otherwise access safe sanitation, hygiene and water (WASH) in rural Kenya. The organisation was initiated by Grace Karanja-Nurek who was raised in Kenya and is familiar with the miserable conditions and consequences of poor school sanitation. Hand of Progress e.V. is determined to do its part in contributing to the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals 6. 'Sanitation and Water for All' is indeed a basic human rights that so crucial and worth supporting by all means. Focus Areas: The construction of school handwashing and hygiene facitilities, improvement of water accessibility and its safety , operations and maintenace support. Promotion of hygiene education to break the vicious cycle of avoidable diseases such as diarhoea, skin and worm infections that plague school children. Creating conducive learning environment and improvement of living spaces for school children by eliminating pit latrine odours from school compounds. The safe collection and management of waste water to protect ground water from contamination through faecal matter and reuse of faecal waste. PILOT PROJECT COMPLETED In February 2018, we started with our pilot project in Mukuyu Primary school in Kitale, Kenya, where we built a permanent sanitation facility for 700 children equipped with pour-flush toilets and hand-washing stations. The need for hygienic sanitation was great and facitility was completed and accessible to the children within the same year. In addition, two water boreholes and a septic tank were dug and completed, adding much value to the infrastructure. In March 2019, a Kids health club was established in the school to continue reinforcing the importance of our work. It also enables children to learn more about sanitation and hygiene interactively. TWO SCHOOL PROJECTS COMPLETED IN 2021 Despite the Covid19 pandemic in 2020 lockdown delays, Hand of Progress e.V. proceeded with the next project as soon as it is possible to travel in 2021. The next step was to support a boarding school for teenage-girls school tackle the problems of water accessibility and unsafe hygiene. The construction of a sanitation & hygiene facility for the boarding school - Immaculate Girls Secondary located in Kitale, Kenya commenced in February 2021. A boys' school, Immaculate Boys Secondary followed thereafter with the same programme. The construction started in May 2021. Inspite of high prices and limited freedom of movement in Kenya, we were able to finish these two schools by September 2021. They are now in full use. Similar to most school in rural Kenya, these boarding schools lacked safe bathroom facilities, water and waste water drainages. In addition to their broken latrines which often collapsed in the rainy seasons, the teenage boys and girls had no privacy and had to bath outside in the cover of darkness throughout the school terms. They were constantly exposed to molestation from strangers, attacks from mosquitoes and other dangerous insects or animals not to mention the valuable time wasted collecting water from the neighbourhood or nearby rivers. UNDER CONSTRUCTION - Ongoing Projects Hand of Progress e.V. had two more ground-breaking ceremonies for our fourth and fifth washroom facilities in September 2021. In the remote region of West Pokot, is Ortum Girls School, a boarding school with children of 5 - 15 years of age. The school is famous for rescuing girls who are victims of the barbaric culture of circumcision. Water is a great challenge because of the rocky and dry nature of this region. Unlike Kitale, where our previous projects were based, manual water digging is impossible here. We require professional water drilling facilities to enable the girls water accessibility. We are also constructing a washroom facility in Sitatunga Vocation College in Kitale, Kenya. This is a technical college that supports school drop outs, jobless girls and boys to learn technical skills, such tailoring, auto mechanics, hair dressing and electrician. Most of the girls have small children and the facility under construction here is catering for such needs as well. NEXT STEPS - ENVIRONMENT PROTECTION The region requires a decentralised sewage faciliy to create safe learning environment, protect the groundwater and enable reuse. This needs to be built before the current septic tanks begin filling up. This facility will be expanded with the construction of new sanitation facilities in the region. With more financial support, we will be able to not only reach out to more schools in a shorter time but also to manage the waste water and reuse the human waste coming from the institutions sustainibly. METHODOLOGY Hand of Progress e.V. identifies the needy schools in Kenya together with the support of a local organisation. In collaboration, it plans and supervises its own projects in the field from planning and design of sanitation facilities, implementation to maintenance. The organisation works closely with local government agencies and self-help groups and partners with local churches and youth groups. OUR WORK IS PAYING OFF Teachers at Mukuyu primary school have proudly informed our organisation about the increasing number of new children coming to their school and less absenteeism. Their school has become a preferred venue for regional game competitions because they have good toilets and water to wash for children to wash their hands! Teacher and parents alike claim to have observed an improvement in the general cleanness of many children, an enhanced self-image and positive behavioural change since the installation of better toilet facilities in Mukuyu School. Hand of Progress e.V. have contracted caretakers to assist the children in hygiene matters. They have to get used to washing their hands with soap and using toilet paper. None of these activities are a norm. According to World Health Organisation, safe water, sanitation and hygiene evidently play a central role in sustaining children’s health, enhancing school performance and whole-child development. THE COMMUNITY We promote regional and local resources through our WASH activities and have created employment opportunities among the youth. In the long-term Hand of Progress e.V. plans to build a sanitation centre, from where our work can be managed, researched and scaled. Also the processing and the reuse of faecal matter will benefit the agricultural communities through the production of fertilizer and energy. CONCLUSION Access to safe sanitation, water and hygiene has massive impact on individuals and should be a basic requirement in schools for every child. Covid19 has magnified the desperate need for hygiene facilities to overwhelming proportions. Hand of Progress e.V. has been working tirelessly during this time but without more financial support many children will remain unreached and continue to live in constant risk. We intend to continue supporting more school children pursue their education and develop a basic healthy-conscious lifestyle in Kenya at large through safe WASH services. Please help us support this cause.