|
|
Children
As Agents Of Change:
Lessons From UNICEF
What is new
about the UNICEF approach?
UNICEF recognizes the potential of children as agents
of handwashing behavior change by coupling water and
sanitation improvements in schools with hygiene
education. The use of environmental health clubs,
drama groups and student focus groups creates the
conditions for children themselves to be agents of
change in their schools, families and communities
Background
Children have historically had few if any roles in
school decision making, let alone in community-based
programming in hygiene and sanitation. UNICEF works
toward making schools healthier and more attractive to
children, especially girls, through school-based
water,
sanitation and hygiene programs. Guiding this approach
is the knowledge that healthier children are more
effective learners, and girls who spend less time
fetching water have more time for school.
Helping to build separate and decent sanitation
facilities in schools can reduce dropout rates,
especially among girls.
Achievements
The following UNICEF country programs illustrate the
impact children are having on improving handwashing
with soap behavior:
Nigeria.
Efforts in Nigeria to change the classroom environment
are childcentered, including forming children’s
hygiene and child rights clubs, training teachers in
life skills education, involving parents and
encouraging village artisans to participate in hygiene
and sanitation projects. One school initiated an
Environmental Health Club, where students promote
handwashing with soap in both the school and the
community and advocate for secure household water
supplies to continue hygienic behavior at home. With
the help of a teacher, the 12 girls and 18 boys who
make up the club operate and
maintain the facilities and keep track of the
borehole’s usage. The club funds its activities by
selling plastic buckets and clay pots fitted with
taps. Two years after the project’s inception,
handwashing among children increased by 95 percent.
Teachers reported that students came to school clean
and had fewer cases of ringworm and other skin
diseases. In addition, school attendance grew steadily
each year, from 320 pupils when the program was
initiated to 538 in 2001.
Indonesia.
A primary school project called “Dokter kecil,” or
little doctors, develops school clubs, consisting of
30 students from grades four to six, that promote
hygiene through community theater and other lively,
interactive activities. The children put on school
plays for their parents and other community members
that convey lessons on the importance of washing hands
with soap before preparing food or eating and after
using the toilet. The students’ work of improving the
health of their community goes beyond their theater
productions. They also take charge of the village’s
Jum’at Bersih (Clean Friday), a national movement,
begun in 1994, that encourages hygiene promotion,
particularly handwashing with soap, during meetings on
Islam’s holy day. The little doctors are becoming
leaders, learning to communicate
clearly and effectively, solve problems, negotiate and
analyze. “People love drama, and parents especially
love to see their children perform,” said one of the
supervising teachers. “It is far more effective than
telling people directly to change the way they do
things.”
Malawi.
An
approach in Malawi honors the right of children to
participate in a process of developing and instituting
national standards for sanitation facilities and
hygiene promotion in
primary schools. National review teams interviewed
children on what they liked and disliked about their
sanitation facilities and hygiene education programs.
The children spoke candidly and perceptively of the
changes needed, and their insights are being used to
modify the technical designs and approach to health
behavior change. The children proved keen advocates
for better sanitation and child-friendly health
education. Comic books based on their feedback have
already been designed for grades five to eight. This
approach and the insights derived are being seen more
actively as having potential applications for
programming improvements in nutrition, education,
health and other areas.
Key lessons
UNICEF’s experience in promoting handwashing with soap
in schools as part of a larger water, sanitation and
hygiene effort shows how important it is to involve
children themselves as active participants with real
project responsibilities rather than as passive
targets of health messages. Combining handwashing with
soap promotion with hands-on school improvements also
creates in the children a sense of ownership that
makes new behaviors more likely to stick. |
