Have I spoken to you about toilets? Ah, a hot topic with the Dunblane Likhubula Partnership this month!
School toilets at that.
The first picture is of current staff toilets at Nansato Primary - this is what well constructed pit latrines look like.
The picture on the bottom left is of the girls’ toilets, where the roof and part of the walls collapsed.
The picture on the bottom right is of the boys toilets at the school, where by summer 2013 the floor has caved onto the foundations.
A few statistics: Nansato School has around 1,300 pupils. In 2006 when Dunblane first brought Mary’s Meals to the school, enrollment was 980. The community is clear that at a big part of the increase comes from providing a daily meal to the children in school. In 2006 water for that meal came from the river. Since then we have helped to install a gravity fed system off the mountain, with three functioning taps inside the school campus. Further sources of water have come from EEC funded projects.
Through the help of a donor, we did assist the community in building 10 pit latrine toilets for the school early in the partnership and these are the ones pictured. We are learning together that local workmanship often does not last well in Malawi. Bricks are made by hand and baked in the sun, concrete is locally produced, often lacking the straw and components that help it withstand heavy wear.
When Fiona and Jenni visited in summer 2013 the school and community asked if the Partnership could replace the toilets.
Recognising the children’s need, we have agreed to do so. A subcommittee has linked with reliable businesses in Blantyre, who have now visited the site and drawn up a tender for 12 pit latrines, built to withstand heavy usage over time. We are in the final stages of agreeing a contract.
For our small Partnership this will be a significant expense. If we protect the budgets for the Bursars’ Programme and Likhubula Committee expenses (the Goat Project is now running successfully as a self sustaining project), we will have just enough money to achieve this.
We would like to thank all who have been supporting us regularly via Standing Order with Gift Aid. This alone has allowed us to build up the funds to be able to meet such a need and it gives us the hope of funding for future projects.
We promise to share pictures of the finished toilets in due course.
I’m sure that’s just what you are waiting to see!
Jenni Barr
