Child-Friendly Hygiene and Sanitation Facilities in Schools

Child-Friendly Hygiene and Sanitation Facilities in Schools: Indispensible to effective hygiene education
Jaap Zomerplaag and Annemarieke Mooijman
This booklet takes a non-traditional look at school hygiene and sanitation facilities in pre-school, primary and secondary
schools. It aims to provide guidelines for the design of child-friendly facilities that are part of the learning environment,
and that not only 'facilitate', but also enable, stimulate and promote appropriate hygiene practices.
Unfortunately, schools with unpleasant facilities that consist of a smelly dark space with just a 'hole in the floor' and
without any integrated facility for hand washing or a water point are often the reality. The result is that children feel
uncomfortable and are scared to use facilities, leading to unsafe conditions and unhealthy practices. Therefore, these
guidelines are also applicable in situations where existing school hygiene and sanitation facilities are being rehabilitated.
The booklet describes in ten points those issues that are important when dealing with children, hygiene and sanitation in
the school environment and provides practical, easily accessible guidance to policy makers, programme designers and
implementers at field level. It covers all the stages of a design project, from needs assessment to operation and
maintenance, because effective child-friendly hygiene and sanitation facilities cannot be realised merely by improving
designs. It stresses the importance of active involvement of children, teachers, parents and the community during all of
these stages so that they themselves will be able to find solutions for their own problems and needs.