Access to clean, drinkable water and toilet facilities is a significant development challenge in Belize, and the consequences reach far beyond health issues.
Take for instance Jose, age 7, who lives with his brothers and sisters in the southern village of Midway, Toledo. At present, Jose goes to school—but his school has no running water and uses an existing, unsanitary pit as the latrine. For water, students walk daily to the river and fill a bucket that is then placed at the front of each classroom for drinking. Water to wash hands is not available.
A health check of Jose reveals that, like all his fellow students and siblings, he suffers from chronic malnutrition and stunted growth. He is also severely infested with parasites or worms, which drain his energy and inhibit his potential to learn, increasing the chance he will drop out of school early, destined to repeat the same vicious cycle of poverty.
UNICEF set out to address the problem and discovered that less than nine percent of the schools were in compliance with the agreed ratio of toilets and hand washing facilities to students. In the region affected by the highest rate of poverty, 80 percent of the schools either had no functioning toilets or an insufficient number of toilets to adequately serve the student population.
Today, thanks to donor support for our WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) program, the efforts of UNICEF are ensuring that children, in schools like these, have not only received hygiene education and water fountains with improved water quality and safety, but also are enjoying new flushing toilets and hand washing basins. And, with the support of UNICEF, the Belize Ministry of Education is in the process of developing national standards and a strategic plan for addressing the situation of WASH in schools.
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