Key Focus Areas
- Environment
- Children with special needs
- Mentorship and career guidance
- Scholarships
- School infrastructure
- Scholastic materials
- STEM
The Challenge
In schools, the consequences of these gaps are particularly stark. The lack of safe water, adequate toilets, and menstrual health facilities discourages attendance and disproportionately affects girls, who often miss school during their menstrual periods.
Evidence suggests that only about 50 percent of schools in Uganda have access to improved sanitation, while handwashing facilities with soap are even less common, falling below 40 percent according to the Ministry of Education and Sports (2022). This shortfall directly undermines children’s right to quality education and health, perpetuating cycles where poor hygiene fuels disease, absenteeism, and diminished learning outcomes. For example, diarrhea diseases, linked to unsafe sanitation and poor hygiene, remain among the top causes of morbidity in children under five, yet they are preventable with simple interventions.
The Goal
To enhance the health, wellbeing, and educational outcomes of school children in Uganda through improved hygiene practices and strengthened sanitation infrastructure.
Our Approach
An approach that combines awareness with infrastructure therefore holds transformative potential. By equipping school-going children with knowledge and practical skills around hygiene, they can become champions of behavior change both in classrooms and at home, creating ripple effects in entire communities.
Complementing this with the provision of sanitation infrastructure functional latrines, menstrual health facilities, and reliable handwashing stations ensures that knowledge translates into sustained practice. This dual pathway becomes the foundation of a theory of change that links improved hygiene and sanitation to better health outcomes, higher school attendance, safer and more inclusive learning environments, and ultimately, greater opportunities for prosperity.
Objectives
- Increase awareness and adoption of proper hygiene practices among school-going children and their communities.
- Improve access to adequate sanitation and menstrual health facilities in schools to create inclusive and conducive learning environments.
- Strengthen community ownership and sustainability of school hygiene and sanitation programs through engagement of parents, teachers, and local leaders.
- Contribute to national and global development targets on health, education, and sanitation by aligning with NDP III, SDG 3, 4, and 6, and Uganda’s national policies.