By Felix Okello
Arua — Some primary school pupils who have been using bushes for open defecation in refugee camps have abandoned the act after a Church organisation constructed a set of modern latrines with washrooms in their school premises.
When the students were forced to resort to open defecation, the most affected were the girls, as many of them feared to go to the bushes to ease themselves, according to Ms Joyce Candiru, the Senior Woman Teacher of Katiku primary school, a beneficiary school.
Ms Candiru said the intervention of the Pentecostal Assemblies of God (PAG) Church had saved the students in the school, especially the girls, from the indignity of resorting to the disconcerting open defecation.
“Before PAG came in, we were also using a temporary toilet that got broken and children were unable to use that. So they were going to help themselves in the bushes,” she said. “We are glad that we now have a latrine with washroom for girls.”
She added: “The bathroom helps them when they are in their menstrual periods and we get water which they use for bathing. Some girls feared to go to bushes and we had a great drop out of girls because of lack of latrine. Some girls returned back after hearing that we have a latrine with washroom. This is motivational.”
One of the female pupils who is benefitting from the new latrine facilities, Yar Boi, who is a primary five pupil at Katiku primary school, said there was no privacy in the bushes since some of the mischievous boys often followed the girls to the bushes, making them uncomfortable.
“It is true we have been using the bush and boys used to follow us to the bush to tease us. And some of the children dropped out because there was no privacy when you use the bush. But now, after the construction of this latrine, there is privacy and comfortable to use it,” said the 13-year-old Boi.
Before the construction of the new latrines, Katiku primary school had only one latrine, which catered for the boys. Yet the girls, whose hygiene needs require better and more numerous lavatory facilities, were reduced to using either bushes or ‘mobile toilets’, as defecating in polythene bags and throwing them in bushes is known locally.
According to statistics provided by authorities at Katiku primary school, there are 232 female refugee and 75 female Ugandans in the school, which brings the total to 307 girls. On the other hand, there are 290 male refugees and 96 Ugandan nationals, totalling up to 386 boys.
The head teacher of the school, Alfred Onen, conceded in an interview that the sanitation facilities at Katiku were in a dire state before the intervention of the Pentecostal Assemblies of God (PAG) Church.
“We had only one latrine that was mainly for the boys and the girls were sometimes using the one in the Nursery section. But this was inconveniencing for the girls because of their high number,” he explained.
Onen added that the problem of construction of latrines in the school was compounded by the poor soil texture that is sandy. “Sometimes when we tried to construct a latrine, the soils would collapse. But we thank PAG for saving us with construction of a better latrine because since it was constructed three years ago, they have not had any issues,” he said.
The PAG officer, Erick Okillan, said they had to construct the latrine right from the basement with strong reinforcement wall to avoid collapse of the soil into the pit that had been dug up to accommodate human waste.
“It is unfortunate that these children were using the bush to help themselves. But this latrine has transformed the lives of the girls, and we have since noticed an increased enrolment of pupils, especially girls, because they can now feel comfortable to use this modern facility,” Okillan said.
The five-stance latrine also has a washroom for the girls and teachers. This has offered privacy for the girls.
Boi said the pupils have been taught on how to use the latrines and keep them clean. According to Boi, the pupils are under strict instructions not to urinate on the floor, or to scrub the latrine floors if they do. However, because water is hard to come by, even for washing hands, most pupils have adapted to the first instruction.
“The challenge is that sometimes we don’t have water for washing hands after toilet. If there is provision of water here, it will be good because we come out of the latrine when our hands are dirty,” she added.
According to Ministry of Education and Sports guidelines on latrines and urinals in schools, which were issued in 2017, schools should have at least one functional, gender segregated latrine for males and females respectively.
In addition, the Schools should have a daily roster for cleaning the latrines and urinals to ensure that all latrines or toilets are clean, functional. They should also have functional walls, doors with a lock for privacy, and should be accessible to children of the designated sex at all times.
Therefore, the intervention by PAG and other partners operating in the refugee settlements has helped in supplementing the guidelines that have been set by the Ministry of Education and Sports.
