Water, Sanitation & Hygiene Education in Africa

SEED Hope is supporting the participation of one of its founding organizations in a USAID-sponsored curriculum development project. Project partners include Project WET International Foundation, a U.S.-based water education and teacher training organization, the U.S. Agency for International Development (Africa Education Initiative), and a host of schools and educational organizations throughout Africa.
	The project was inspired by the work of Play Pumps International, a not-for-profit organization based in South Africa. Play Pumps offers an innovative solution to the pervasive problem of obtaining clean drinking water in much of rural Africa. Play Pumps are water pumping and storage systems driven by children’s playground merry-go-rounds. Originally conceived as a means for providing water education in communities with Play Pumps installed, this education project now has an expanded scope.
During the initial phase of this project will develop educational materials on water, sanitation, and hygiene. Unsafe drinking water and lack of sanitation are now the single largest cause of illness worldwide. This project will deliver over 800,000 publications to students and teachers in some 1,000 schools across sub-Saharan Africa. Later phases are planned to focus on educator training and developing broader water education materials. A potential second phase would produce educational materials on watersheds and the water cycle. In the first two phases, some 1.5 million educational publications would be created and distributed to educators and children across the continent. With greater water awareness and knowledge, youth will likely become educators of adults and decision makers.

Help connect us — If you have an interest in, or know people or organizations we should be in touch with in Africa or about this kind of work please contact us.