Wat Norea Peaceful Children's Home II Handwashing Station Project – Cambodia

Location
Odambang II Commune, Sangker District, Battambang Province, Kingdom of Cambodia

Community Description
Battambang Province is located in northwest Cambodia and consists of 13 districts, 96 communes and 741 villages. Sangker District (or Battambang District) is the capital of the province and has a population of 250,000.

Peaceful Children’s Home II is an orphanage located in Odambang Commune, Sangker District, about 7 kilometers east of the city center.

There are generally two types of children who live at the orphanage: children who have been orphaned and children whose parents cannot afford to raise them. In both cases, these children come to the orphanage so that they can have proper shelter, food and access to an education.

The children who are old enough to attend school study in the city center at primary, secondary, and high school. The older children are given the task of caring for one younger child, creating a buddy system of sorts. There are currently 54 children at the orphanage ranging in age from 3 to 19 years old.

The orphanage has a communal bathroom with seven stalls. The bathroom consists of a toilet in the ground and a water basin. There is currently no hand washing facility on the grounds.

The children typically wash their hands with only water after using the bathroom because soap is typically not in the bathroom. Likewise, the children brush their teeth in the same stall and usually, there is no toothpaste.

Because there are no sinks and faucets to wash hands and brush teeth, these activities are commonly neglected by the children. This often leads to poor hygiene and sometimes illness.

Hand washing is monitored by checking to see if the children’s hands are wet before meals. This poses a problem because, during the rainy season, the children’s hands are always wet. The orphanage typically floods during the rainy season, and that is a time when germs and illnesses are spread easily.

During this current rainy season, almost all of the children had diarrhea and some had to be hospitalized, which led to many of the children missing school.

Monitoring tooth brushing is equally difficult because the children are currently responsible for doing this task alone in the bathroom.

Project Description
This project is to create a hygiene station near the communal bathrooms where children can wash their hands and brush their teeth.

Project funds will be used to purchase faucets, pipes, valves, cement, tiles, stones, and iron, and to pay for skilled labor.

The station will be a double-sided structure with 6 hygiene areas, 3 faucets on each side. It will be connected to the main water system.

The station will be located alongside of the only path leading to the bathrooms, which will create a constant and visible reminder for the children to wash their hands after bathroom use.

The location of the station is also on the way back from the kitchen to the dormitories, so is will be a constant reminder for the children to brush their teeth after meals. Also, the location will make monitoring the younger children easier because they will be seen walking past the station.

The hygiene station will be supplied with communal soap and toothpaste. Each child will also receive a toothbrush.

In addition, once the structure is completed, there will be a hygiene workshop about hand washing and teeth brushing. Two trained host country nationals will train three residents of the orphanage- two high school females and one high school male and the seven permanent staff members at the orphanage.

These residents will in turn become trained and will deliver the workshop with the two previously trained nationals. These three residents will then be in charge of hand washing before meals and teeth brushing after meals.

Monitoring as a whole will be done by the seven staff members and three trained residents. Each older child will then be responsible for monitoring their own hygiene, as well as their younger child assigned to them.

Project Impact
54 children who live at the orphanage and the 7 permanent staff members who also live at the orphanage will benefit from the project.

Peace Corps Volunteer Directing Project
Kealan Waldron

Comments
This project complements the Wat Norea Peaceful Children’s Home II Solar Pump Project – Cambodia project, recently implemented under the direction of Peace Corps Volunteer Darlene Grant. It will definitely change behaviors, leading to a reduction of illness and an improvement in dental hygiene.

Dollar Amount of Project
$500.00

Donations Collected to Date
$500.00 + additional amounts for future projects.

Dollar Amount Needed
$0.00 – This project has now been fully funded through the generosity of friends and family of Peace Corps Volunteer Kealan Waldron.

We encourage others to continue to donate using the Donate button below, and we will notify Kealan of your donation. Additional funds will be used to fund the next project by Kealan and/or those of other PCVs in Cambodia.




This project has been finished. To read about the conclusion of the project, CLICK HERE.