
Clean hands: the promise of a bright future
Published on: 11/10/2024
Sanitation and hygiene are steadily gaining the national attention that they deserve in Uganda, thanks to proactive sector collaboration and high level political influencing.
Right after the first ever Presidential Dialogue on WASH held today (October 11) in the Parliament Conference Hall, partners will congregate at the largest Mandela National Stadium – Namboole to commemorate Global Hand Washing Day come 15th October under the theme, Why are clean hands still important? Joventa Ninsiima, 17, shares why clean hands are important for her:
My name is Ninsiima Joventa. I am 17 years old. I am in primary six at Rwankenzi Primary School, in Kabarole1.
You found me washing my hands on the WASHALOT after coming from the latrine. There is always water and soap. Washing hands is so simple and fun, yet it helps us to keep clean and healthy. The WASHALOT is always busy when the bell rings for break, we all run there to wash our hands before eating.
School is my safe place now. Before, it was our job as the "big children" in the upper classes to carry water from the borehole far outside the school to use in the kitchen. Many children would be sick all the time with diarrhoea and typhoid. Now we have a tap where we get water for drinking, and a tank where we fetch water for cleaning the classrooms and kitchen utensils. We follow a group rota and work together to scrub the floors.
As a girl you cannot avoid periods, sometimes they start when you are at school. It is not a good feeling to get a map of blood on your skirt, it's shameful and some children laugh at you. The new girls' toilet is special because it has its own water tank, a tap and a bathroom. Girls pick a basin and soap from the senior woman teacher when periods start at school. There are programmes now where they teach us how to make pads that we can wash and use many times.
I want to be a nun when I grow up, if only I could stay in school up to Senior Four. I see Catholic Sisters and how they behave. Their dresses and hands are always clean, but they are kind to dirty children and poor people. That is what I want to do when I grow up – look neat and dignified but help people without shaming them. My best subject is English because it will help me to relate with so many people beyond my home and village.
My biggest fear is that I might drop out of school even before P7. My mother grows the food we eat. Sometimes my mother takes on jobs to cultivate other people’s gardens, that is how she is able take care of me and my four siblings. Sometimes I stay home to help with the baby when my mother takes on a job. It is difficult for my mother to pay my school fees and take us to hospital when we are sick. I have seen too many girls get pregnant or even resort to prostitution. I pray that this shall never happen to me. I am standing for the post of Health Prefect so that I can be an example to other children.
1 Supporting water sanitation and hygiene services and systems in public institutions is part of the core work of IRC Uganda. The Sustainable Sanitation and Hygiene project in the districts is delivered with generous funding support of the James Percy Foundation.