Seika WaSH Project
hygiene trainings

WaSH Project – Background

Seika is a small town with approximately 12,000 inhabitants in the Brong Ahafo Region of Ghana, about 30 km from the district’s capital Nsawkaw. In Seikwa and the surrounding villages, many households have limited access to clean drinking water. Open toileting without proper sanitation is widespread – with dramatic effects on people’s health and well-being. This is a silent crisis that negatively affects the entire population in this region The situation of the inhabitants is deteriorating more and more over time. However, due to the lack of solutions so far, the locals have no choice but to reluctantly endure the situation.

Our vision

With the WaSH Project, Madamfo Ghana wants to improve the livelihoods of the people in Seikwa. WaSH stands for Water, Sanitation and Hygiene. For this to succeed, the suitable and necessary infrastructure for clean drinking water and sanitary facilities must be created in the first place. Furthermore, special trainings on hygiene for teachers and students will ensure that the locals will be aware of the importance of hygiene and can strategically pass on their knowledge – true to our motto: helping people to help themselves.

The WaSH Project

In Seikwa, the WaSH Projects includes the construction of a toilet facility with 25 toilets in combination with a clean drinking water supply. The project will be directly linked to the local nursing and midwifery school. Currently, all students use a single toilet facility, a so called Ventilated Indirect Pit (VIP), and a toilet. Due to the inadequate toilet facilities on campus, there has been frequent overuse of this toilet in the past, leading to severe hygiene problems. Thus, many students had no other option but to defecate openly in the bushes, with serious consequences for the lives of all students and the people in the vicinity of the college.

Project Goals

The main goal of the project is the construction of sufficient number of school-standard toilet facilities for all students and school staff. In addition, the WaSh project aims to train the students on hygiene, so that they can pass on their knowledge to their communities and surrounding schools. Appropriate gender and social inclusion elements are included in all project activities. This ensures the participation, consultation and/or consideration of all students and residents.

Additional Project Focus

• Training of students as WaSH promoters to raise the awareness for good hygiene practices in their communities and schools.
• Education campaigns for hand washing and hygiene habits.

Trainer Education

In the course of the WaSH Project, a train-the-trainer training is also conducted. The goal is to educate the trainers, in accordance with the WaSH principle, on water, sanitary facilities and hygiene, so they can pass on their knowledge to schools in their vicinity, following the so-called ‚Cascade-Principle‘. This means that some of the staff are trained so that they can pass on their knowledge to other colleagues and students, who in turn pass on their knowledge directly to their parents, families and communities.

The training covers the following topics relating to WaSH:

• Water supply
• Hand hygiene
• Hygiene promotion
• Cleansing and disinfection