Improving Sanitation & Hygiene at Angwingiri Secondary School

Collines Angwech (3rd from right), FAF Co-Founder & Country Director, standing with Engineers, School Staff and local leaders at the site of the next pit latrine build to improve sanitation at our newest partner school

With COVID-19 rapidly affecting people all over the world, issues surrounding the quality of sanitation and hygiene are hot topics in the media, around the “virtual” water cooler (or should I just say Slack channels?) at work, and at the dinner table.

The Head Mistress of Agwingiri Girls School welcomed the FAF team warmly and was thrilled to join FAF as one of our School Outreach Partner Schools.

But for teachers and students across Amolatar District, Uganda, lack of access to sanitation and hygiene resources (access to toilets, for example) have been a daily stressor for years.

In 2018, we partnered with Namasale Primary School when we realized that over 1,000 students were sharing old, crumbling and nearly full pit latrines. Lack of access to toilets were a major obstacle for young girls who, during their periods, often opted to skip school for the week rather than use the crumbling, overfull and unsanitary toilets, causing them to fall weeks behind in their schoolwork compared to their peers.

After completing the toilets at Namasale Primary, in July of 2019 District Officials asked us if Far Away Friends would come visit Agwingiri Girls School — the only all-girls boarding school in the region— to consider adding them to our network of partner schools and increasing their capacity to attract more girls to attend high school there.

We were greeted with the warmest hospitality by the school’s Head Mistress, who explained to us the dire condition of existing resources at their school.

“Because of the poor conditions of girl’s dorms and toilets, many families have stopped enrolling their girls here altogether,” she explained. “We’ve had to enroll boys now to keep our numbers up and our teachers employed.”

After our initial visit and survey, Collines Angwech, FAF Co-Founder & Country Director, returned to take photos of the current toilets being used by over 300 high school students at Agwingiri.

The current pit latrines at Angwingiri Girl’s school were practically crumbling…

Imagine if your child was expected to use toilets like these during their school day…

The current state of the toilets for students at Angwingiri Girl’s School in Amolatar District.

After discussing what a partnership with Far Away Friends would look like, Collines and the Agwingiri staff determined that FAF would fund the construction of four new pit latrines for girls and two for boys, supporting over 300 high schoolers.

“I told the staff at the Agwingiri that they would be responsible for digging the pits and in two weeks, if that part was complete, we would return with our engineer to start building the toilets,” Collines explained.

“Well to my surprise, they finished the digging before the end of that week, and called me to say, ‘We’re ready for you now.’ Over 15 people worked HARD to ensure that pit was hand-dug as fast as possible. That’s how desperate this school was to simply have toilets.”

Thanks to our incredible supporters and donors who attended our 2019 Opportunity on Tap Gala, we were able to fully fund this project and improve the lives of 300 high schoolers (and attract more girls to come to school) through the improvement of sanitation/hygiene resources in our partner schools.

By improving toilets at schools like Agwingiri, we expect to see more students attending school and less girls missing days because of their periods. If you’d like to support our work and more projects like this, consider becoming an Advocate and sponsoring a classroom in need or making a donation today!