BEST OF ZANZIBAR Starts Sanitation Education Fof The Community In Unguja North.

Best of Zanzibar is proud to announce the success of its Health and Sanitation Education program at Mbuyu Tende Primary and Secondary School and Kijini Pre-Primary, Primary and Secondary School.

Best of Zanzibar is working with seven Health Officers from the Department of Environmental Health at the State University of Zanzibar (SUZA) and have developed and trained together with lead Health Officer NahyaKhamisNassor to teach teachers and school children practical hygiene practices and its importance.  The Health and Sanitation Education program started with training for the community leaders on the basis that community leaders are key components in the behaviour change chain by promoting the practices that they also understand.  The Education was then shared at Mbuyu Tende School with 512 students and 10 teachers, and at Kijini School with 809 students and 17 teachers.  The program will continue with community groups, local health clinics and the general public – a total population of approximately 7500.  

The objective of the Health and Sanitation Education is to promote positive hygiene-related behaviour change practices for these students.  In Mbuyu Tende, approximately one in eight primary school students responded that they washed their bodies in the past week.  The goal of the Health and Sanitation Education is to educate students, teachers and the community in general about the link between illness and diseases and safe hygiene practices, so they understand the importance of washing hands, teeth, bodies and how to stop the spread of bacteria that may cause illness and disease, such as cholera.  The students are engaged and interactive, they asked lots of questions, and requested further information provision about various disease and other public health matters.

‘The program was developed from the results of the Baseline Survey of these villages conducted in October 2016, identifying Health and Hygiene as primary concerns for the area. We found that many in the community lacked the basic knowledge of environmental and physical hygiene. The program entails providing education of safe hygiene practices at sanitation or wash areas, and to introduce sanitation practices that promote hygiene and health at school and at home, including a take-home package of soap, toothbrush and toothpaste for every student.’ said the SUZA Health Officer Ms. NahyaKhamisNassor.

Mr. Mohamed Issa Khatib, Best of Zanzibar program facilitator said ‘Overall, the Best of Zanzibar big picture program for Health & Sanitation is to provide access to clean water to Kigomani schools and village, wash stations and latrine pits at various points along the new Pennyroyal (Gibraltar) Ltd water line, and to implement community toilet facilities and associated education. We at Pennyroyal are focused on improving the life standards of the Matemwe community not just with health and sanitation education, but also through vocational classes in the future that will give the youth and women of Matemwe skills which we hope will enable the community to have better income and create employment opportunities.’

The Health and Sanitation program started on February 27 and is expected to finalize phase one of the program on March 9, 2017.

(Report by Best of Zanzibar Manager- Tia Egglestone)