School Migjeni Puke Bathroom Project – Albania

This project is made possible through the partnership of Water Charity and the National Peace Corps Association.

This is a project under the LET GIRLS LEARN Program, a collaboration of First Lady Michelle Obama and the Peace Corps to expand access to education for girls around the world!

Location
Puke, Puke District, Shkoder Region, Albania

Community Description
Pukë is a remote town of 5,000 residents located in the mountains of northern Albania. Residents have little access to health services as the health care system is largely corrupt and the local hospital has limited resources, and will possibly be closed in the next few years due to lack of funding.

Most residents must make the trip to Shkodër or Tirana when they become ill, which is difficult to arrange due to widespread unemployment and poverty. Illnesses are easily spread in tight living arrangements, with entire families living in dilapidated one-bedroom apartments.

The Government Municipality, or Bashkia, and Directory of Public Health, wish to focus more on taking preventative measures to protect citizen’s health. One way in which they can do that is by addressing the lack of sanitation found in the school bathrooms.

Problem Addressed
The current state of the school bathrooms serving grades 1-9 is deplorable. A total of 543 people use these bathrooms and not a single toilet flushes. The janitors must flush the toilets using buckets at the end of the school day. Only one of four sinks functions, inferring that only 25% of students are able to wash their hands after using the bathroom. While there is running water and a deposit tank, it can only be accessed from the sink in the girl’s first floor bathroom.

Furthermore, all doors in the girl’s bathrooms are without locks, while there are no door is the boys bathroom. The doors were all made of glass, and they are all shattered; only the frames remain.

Due to the state of the school bathrooms, students are exposed to illness. Often times, they do not even stay at school to use the restroom, which raises the possibility that they will not return for the rest of their classes. Of particular concern are girls during their menstrual cycle. With unsanitary facilities, they are exposing themselves to an assortment of health issues, as well as overall stress and taboo. With doors that do not lock, they are unable to have the level of privacy needed to change a pad or tampon. Again, this often leads many of them to just return home to take care of their hygienic needs.

Project Description
The project will take place in “School Migjeni Puke,” which teaches students from grades 1-9. On both the first and second floor, there is both a boy’s bathroom and a girl’s bathroom. Every bathroom has 4 stalls and one sink, totaling 16 toilets and 4 sinks. In order for these students to learn in a sanitary environment, all bathrooms will be refurbished. This includes fixing 16 doors and 3 sinks, as well as replacing 16 toilet tanks.

The original toilets are Turkish toilets. The bowls are still intact and do not need to be replaced. The school has a working water supply, as well as a water deposit in case Puka is on a water schedule.

The local Bashkia will provide the 25% community contribution requirement, which will be used to provide labor and cleaning supplies. A group of five engineers/plumbers provided by the Bashkia will be installing the new materials. The funds provided by Water Charity will cover the cost of the materials required to fix the bathrooms,

Peace Corps Volunteer Laura Hobbs, will accompany an employee and an engineer from the Bashkia to purchase the proposed materials. After installation, the Office of Health Promotion will go into the schools and provide informative lessons on germ theory and hand washing to students in grades one through three, using the newly refurbished bathrooms. Girls in grades five through seven will be taught about their menstrual cycle and what to do if they are at school at that time of month. This will allow these girls to remain at school during their cycle and eliminate much of the shame and embarrassment that is currently associated with it.

Project Impact
543 people, consisting of 502 students and 41 employees, will benefit from the project

Peace Corps Volunteer Directing Project
Laura Hobbs

Monitoring and Maintenance
The Bashkia will provide materials for the bathrooms to cover three to four months of use, but the school will continue supplying the bathrooms with soap and cleaning supplies when this is depleted. This will ensure that the bathrooms are being used properly and students have access to the level of sanitation, which they deserve.

Furthermore, an initiative will be started within the schools for each student to bring one bar of soap or roll of toilet paper into the classroom at the beginning of the school year. This is a relatively cost-effective way for families in Pukë to support this project through tangible means.

In terms of maintenance of the actual toilets and sinks, the school janitors will be required to report any damage or wear-and-tear to the Bashkia, who is responsible for fixing these problems. Peace Corps Volunteer Randolph Kent, who works in the school, will ensure that damage is being reported and corrected in a timely manner.

Comments
By refurbishing the school bathrooms, students are insured a cleaner learning environment, which carries over into the larger community context in eliminating illness.

Bashkia Puke is providing community contribution funding and is in charge of long-term bathroom maintenance. The Office of Health Promotion, Directory of Public Health, will deliver the curriculum for hand washing and germ theory

This project is part of the LET GIRLS LEARN program sponsored by FLOTUS Michelle Obama. It is intended to have a positive effect in keeping girls in school after they reach adolescence. Lack of clean facilities is a leading cause of women dropping out of school. Water Charity is proud to have sponsored the very first LGL project, and continues to be a leading contributor to the program, as evidenced by projects like this one.

As an LGL project, this falls under our 100 Water Projects Program – Albania as well as our larger Let Girls Learn Initiative – Worldwide.

Dollar Amount of Project

$2,650

Donations Collected to Date

Dollar Amount Needed
$2,650

This project has been completed. To see the results, CLICK HERE.

ADOPT THIS PROJECT BY CONTRIBUTING THE DOLLAR AMOUNT OF PROJECT
Donations of any amount will be appreciated. The full amount will allow you a posted dedication, if that is something you would like.

Conclusion of School Migjeni Puke Bathroom Project – Albania

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Conclusion of School Migjeni Puke Bathroom Project – Albania

This project has been completed under the direction of Peace Corps Volunteer Laura Hobbs.

To read about the beginning of the project, CLICK HERE.

The following is Laura Hobbs’ final report:

SCOPE/PROCESS:
In conjunction with the Office of Health Promotion in the Directory of Public Health Pukë, Laura originally planned on submitting a grant for oral hygiene lessons and materials for the 9-vjeçare. However, when she and her office went to assess the likelihood of this grant with the school, it was discovered that their bathrooms were not in working order. Even though there was running water, there were no sinks or toilet cisterns to access the running water. Therefore, janitors would bucket flush the toilets at the end of the day and students did not wash their hands. We decided that we need to address this problem before we could attempt to address oral hygiene.

Upon receipt of the funds in November, 2015, I began coordinating with the Bashkia for when the bathrooms could be installed. Due to a working project the Bashkia had going on, the workers were not available until December, 2015. The first round of school bathrooms (16 total stalls and 4 sinks) were installed in December of 2015.

In early January, we began the educational phase of the project in conjunction with the Directory of Public Health Pukë. In two groups, six nurses from the Health Promotion Office taught students from Grades K-8 about personal hygiene, microbes, flu season, and hand washing. This was done over the course of two weeks, and students who participated in a microbial experiment were overseen directly while they washed their hands to ensure that the lesson’s goal was achieved.

Once the first component was completed, I emailed Water Charity to acquire approval for a project expansion to complete an extra bathroom in the school. Water Charity and the Small Grants Committee approved this extension, with the second stage of bathroom refurbishments totaling 26050 ALL. Further, the Committee approved the usage of any leftover money to go towards extra cleaning materials to supplement those being supplied by the Bashkia.

GOALS:
The first goal of students properly using the refurbished bathrooms to promote a cleaner learning environment was very successful, due to the expansion of the objective to teach students about hand washing.

The original objective only states that students in grades 1-3 would be taught lessons, but this was expanded to grades K-8. This serves a wider base of students and ensures that every student using the bathrooms do so properly. The skill building of the students during these lessons was an important component of the project. We taught a total of 265 students from grades K-5 about microbes and hand washing. The middle school students were taught about personal hygiene during puberty and hand washing, totaling 155 students from grades 6-8.

The installation took place in December and the education component in January. This timeline was pushed back because the grant was received after the original timeline had already passed, and winter break interrupted the student’s teaching schedule.

Overall, the community feeling is extremely positive. On February 20th, parents attended students’ final class of the day for teacher-parent meetings, and many were very pleased with the changes made. One parent of a 4th grade girl was thrilled that the “entry hall and first floor no longer smell like bathrooms and waste,” and that “the bathrooms are so clean,” even she would use them!

SUSTAINABILITY
The project will be monitored by Randolph Kent, a current volunteer in the 9-vjecare, as well as by the school director. We have agreed with the bashkia that if repairs become necessary, they will make them out of pocket. Therefore, if Randolph (or the school director) finds something in the bathroom to need repairs, they can be notified and the bathroom monitored until the repair is made.

In terms of sustainability of proper student usage, the Directory of Public Health, Health Promotion Team makes yearly trips to the school during flu season to teach about the importance of handwashing and hygiene. This ensures that even new students will be a part of the health curriculum each year and use the restrooms properly. Further, a school initiative where students bring one bar of soap in at the beginning of the school year will ensure that there are still bathroom supplies for hand washing once those donated by the Bashkia have run out.

We would like to thank Laura once again for executing such a fine project.

Jani Bocova School Bathroom and Water Project – Albania

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Jani Bocova School Bathroom and Water Project – Albania

This project is made possible through the partnership of Water Charity and the National Peace Corps Association.
This is a project under the LET GIRLS LEARN Program, a collaboration of First Lady Michelle Obama and the Peace Corps to expand access to education for adolescent girls around the world!

Location
Jani Bocova School, Afrim i Ri village, Fier, Albania

Community Description
Jani Bocova is a 9 year school (primary and intermediate grades 1-9) with 240 students and 15 teachers/staff. Albania is a largely Muslim country where women are not given many opportunities to do anything other than raise families.

Problem Addressed
The facilities for hygiene and sanitation are woefully insufficient. The bathrooms that exist now need to be rebuilt and refurbished. The toilets are currently outside, across a short walkway, with no windows and open to the elements.

Lack of running water and doors for the stalls are a barrier that prevents girls from being able to handle their periods at school, and contributes to the cultural pressure for them to drop out of school.

The toilets themselves need running water, and the basins need taps and piping. Also, the sewer pipes are blocked and broken and need replacing. The school is on a watering schedule and needs a deposit and pump to ensure running water.

Project Description
The project will build walls and insert windows to make the toilet block weatherproof. Running water will be brought to the bathrooms; new faucets and piping will be installed. The sewer pipes will be replaced. And, additionally, a water storage tank will be installed with a pump.

Some of the toilet doors are recoverable but need refinishing and new door frames. Handles and locks will also be added. All the toilets will be completely replaced. There are 3 Turkish toilets for the girls, 3 for the boys and 2 for the teachers/staff… 8 in total.

Project Impact
255 students and teachers, plus parents and visitors to the school, will benefit.

Peace Corps Volunteer Directing Project
Teresa Anderson

Monitoring and Maintenance
The bashkia (municipality) will be responsible for monitoring and maintaining the new bathroom facilities.

Comments
This project is part of the LET GIRLS LEARN program sponsored by FLOTUS Michelle Obama. It is intended to have a positive effect in keeping girls in school after they reach adolescence. Lack of clean facilities is a leading cause of women dropping out of school. Water Charity is proud to have sponsored the very first LGL project, and continues to be a leading contributor to the program, as evidenced by projects like this one.

As an LGL project, this falls under our 100 Water Projects Program – Albania as well as our larger Let Girls Learn Initiative – Worldwide.

Dollar Amount of Project
$1,050

Donations Collected to Date
$0

Dollar Amount Needed
$1,050

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

Funding is still needed for this project, and many more in Albania. Please Donate.

ADOPT THIS PROJECT BY CONTRIBUTING THE DOLLAR AMOUNT OF THE PROJECT.
Donations of any amount will be appreciated. The full amount will allow you a posted dedication, if that is something you would like.

Pinellopi Pirro School Bathroom and Water Project – Albania

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Pinellopi Pirro School Bathroom and Water Project – Albania

Location
Pinellopi Piro School, Fier, Albania

Community Description
This is a 9 year school with 900 students and 40 teachers. There is a lack of sanitary facilities to meet the needs of the students.

Problem Addressed
The bathrooms need a complete refurbishment. The current facilities are substandard, and without running water.

Pinellopi Piro is a 9-year (nente vjecare) school in Fier, Albania that needs complete renovation of its toilets. They have been repainting the school and discovered that the floors of the bathroom and the sewage pipes have disintegrated, so their need is even greater than that of comparable schools build during the Communist era.

Project Description
The project will install 12 Turkish toilets, 8 hand basins, and 6 aluminum secure doors, and refurbish 8 wooden doors to make them secure.

All toilets and hand basins will be plumbed to provide running water. A water deposition the roof of the school will be repaired to allow for a supply of water outside of the hours of their water schedule.

Water Charity funds will pay for the materials and skilled labor.

Project Impact
More than 1,000 people will benefit from the project.

Peace Corps Volunteer Directing Project
Graham Anderson

Monitoring and Maintenance
The school will be responsible for care and maintenance.

Comments
This project is part of the LET GIRLS LEARN program sponsored by FLOTUS Michelle Obama. It is intended to have a positive effect on keeping girls in school after they reach adolescence. Lack of clean facilities is a leading cause of women dropping out of school. Water Charity is proud to have sponsored the very first LGL project and continues to be a leading contributor to the program, as evidenced by projects like this one.

Dollar Amount of Project
$2,600

Donations Collected to Date
$0

Dollar Amount Needed
$2,600

ADOPT THIS PROJECT BY CONTRIBUTING THE DOLLAR AMOUNT OF THE PROJECT
Donations of any amount will be appreciated. The full amount will allow you a posted dedication if that is something you would like.

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

Conclusion of Pinellopi Pirro School Bathroom and Water Project – Albania

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Conclusion of Pinellopi Pirro School Bathroom and Water Project – Albania

This Let Girls Learn project has been completed under the direction of Peace Corps Volunteer Graham Anderson.

To read about the beginning of the project, CLICK HERE.

Graham reports:

After our successful project at Kopshti #3 in Fier, Pinellopi Pirro was the first school to involve the local mayor and its Bashkia (Town Hall) in its renovation of the school bathrooms. The school was being thoroughly renovated after decades of neglect and unavailability of public funds for these institutions. The focus on renovations in Albania is very much on appearance and what is visible, so the hygiene and sanitation of the bathrooms is often a low priority, or even ignored completely.

Thanks to the Let Girls Learn grant from Water Charity, this placed the bathrooms firmly in the schedule of the total school renovation. Because of the damage to the subfloors and the drains in the bathroom, this became a major piece of reconstruction and, although the target was completed before the school year started, this extra work threatened the success of the bathroom project.

The Bashkia workmen put in the extra effort, however, and were able to repair the infrastructure to allow the installation of 12 new Turkish toilets and 8 new hand basins with running water to all of them. Significantly, attention was paid to the security of the bathrooms and, instead of repairing 8 original wooden doors, a set of recycled aluminum doors were installed alongside the 6 new ones to ensure all the toilet cubicles now have secure, locking doors. This aspect of the project goes right to the heart of Let Girls Learn. Without this security, adolescent girls often avoid using the bathroom or, more likely when they are menstruating, avoid school completely, impacting their education and their future.

To complete the project, the workmen repaired the water deposit in the roof of the building to ensure 24-hour water availability, despite the water company schedule, and flushing toilets 24/7. All that was needed then was to educate the cleaners in how to maintain the bathrooms (proper techniques as opposed to flooding the place with water constantly, destroying the facilities), educate the teachers and children in the proper use of their renovated bathrooms and involve the parents in the commitment of maintaining the bathroom supplies. All of this education was delivered, indeed is ongoing, by the Public Health Department school nurse.

Not only does Pinellopi Pirro now take pride of place in the city’s Pedonale (the city street where everyone comes out for a stroll in the evening) by looking good from the outside, but now it’s bathrooms are clean and working and a safe place for the 900 students to use and not an inhibitor to their education. The influence on siblings and other community members is huge and this legacy should last for generations of Fier children, thanks to funding from Water Charity.

We are grateful to Graham for completing this excellent project.

100 Water Projects Program – Albania

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100 Water Projects Program – Albania

This is an effort under the LET GIRLS LEARN Program, a collaboration of First Lady Michelle Obama & Peace Corps, to expand access to education for girls around the world!

100 Water Projects For Albanian Girls!

Water Charity is proud to announce that we have crafted a program to do 100 water projects in Albania over the next year. Due in large part to the vision of Teresa and Graham Anderson, the PCVs spearheading this effort, we have scaled up what would have been 10 school bathroom projects, into a major program to deal with the poor sanitation conditions in schools all around Albania. This ambitious goal is already underway in a dozen schools, and will likely surpass even our lofty goal of 100 projects.

This entire program falls under our Let Girls Learn Initiative. This is an effort on our part to step up and pick up the gauntlet thrown by the First Lady in her call to further girl’s education around the world. Water Charity did the very first LGL project in Cambodia earlier this year and aims to do a couple hundred more water projects that expressly aim to empower young women and allow girls the myriad opportunities that an education can bestow.

NPCA and Water Charity have already helped develop, and provide funding for, a number of great water system projects that exemplify the need for programs like this. It is hard to overestimate the value of clean, functional, dedicated bathroom facilities. They not only provide hygienic and sanitary conditions, but privacy, safety, and dignity as well.

Lack of proper sanitation facilities at a school contributes greatly to the drop out rate among adolescent women. Upon reaching their menses, many girls simply leave school, and others struggle on while missing a whole week out of every month. Most of them endure a lot of pressure to drop out of school to get married and start families.

Albania, as one of only two majority Muslim countries in Europe, has cultural attitudes towards women and their education that influence many Albanian women to give up on the idea of education completely.

Our goal with this program is to work with the schools to create an environment conducive to young women remaining in school.

The majority of these schools lack running water, and many have no functional bathroom facilities whatsoever at the moment. Even where they do have toilets, they are often in horrible disrepair or are not useable because there is no running water to flush them… and they are not connected to sewer pipes.

Thus, a large portion of these projects will be to refurbish or build new toilet facilities, complete with running water. We will not stop there, however. Water Charity intends to go on and support a large variety of projects that have an LGL impact. As most people know, lack of clean water and adequate sanitation can make people susceptible to frequent waterborne illnesses, and being sick with such sicknesses, keep children out of school… not to mention threatening their very lives.

We hope you will support us in this effort to make a meaningful difference in this beautiful Mediterranean nation. Check out the various projects in the program below, and don’t hesitate to donate to any projects that seem worthy to you. We are looking for a large donor to adopt this entire program as well, so contact us if you are interested.
This program is made possible through the partnership of WATER CHARITY and the NATIONAL PEACE CORPS ASSOCIATION.

Sheq i Madh School Bathroom and Water ProjectK – Albania

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Sheq i Madh School Bathroom and Water ProjectK – Albania

This project is made possible through the partnership of Water Charity and the National Peace Corps Association.
This is a project under the LET GIRLS LEARN Program, a collaboration of First Lady Michelle Obama and the Peace Corps to expand access to education for adolescent girls around the world!

Location
Sheq i Madh School, Fier, Albania

Community Description
Sheq i Madh is a 9 year (nente vjecare) school with 250 students and 15 teachers in the region of Fier. It is one of the smaller local schools

Problem Addressed
The bathrooms need refurbishment, and to have running water. The general sanitation situation at the school is thoroughly inadequate.

There are four student toilets, and one for the teachers, but all need rebuilding and connecting to running water with a new deposit in the roof to provide 24 hour supply.

Project Description
This project will provide 5 new Turkish toilets, 4 hand basins (one already exists), and the plumbing for running water to them. In addition, a new water storage container on the roof, and an associated water pump will be installed to provide a continuous source of water.

Project Impact
300 people will directly benefit from the project. In addition, family members, visitors, and workers who come to school will benefit.

Peace Corps Volunteer Directing Project
Graham Anderson

Monitoring and Maintenance
Fier Bashkia (Municipality) will be responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of the facilities.

As an LGL project, this falls under our 100 Water Projects Program – Albania, as well as our larger Let Girls Learn Initiative – Worldwide.

Dollar Amount of Project
$1,200

Donations Collected to Date
$0

Dollar Amount Needed
$1,200

ADOPT THIS PROJECT BY CONTRIBUTING THE DOLLAR AMOUNT OF THE PROJECT.
Donations of any amount will be appreciated. The full amount will allow you a posted dedication if that is something you would like. This project has been completed. However, we are still collecting donations. To read about the conclusion, CLICK HERE.

Conclusion of Sheq i Madh School Bathroom and Water Project – Albania

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Conclusion of Sheq i Madh School Bathroom and Water Project – Albania

This project has been completed under the direction of Peace Corps Volunteer Graham Anderson.

To read about the beginning of the project, CLICK HERE.

Graham reports:

At the beginning, the intent was to complete the bathrooms for this small school before the start of the school year. In reality, all the resources from the Bashkia (Town Hall) were diverted to other (school) projects and so nothing was done before school started. This problem was compounded when the investigation into what was needed showed that the floor of the whole bathroom block had collapsed. As time went by everybody adopted the same approach that is endemic in Albania, namely to accept the status quo, blame the government and expect nothing to change.

Six months further on, with the Water Charity funds, transmitted through the Peace Corps Let Girls Learn program, still in the bank, another inspection of the school showed the toilets had deteriorated further and that urgent work was needed before the grant money needed to be returned, unspent. Some tense negotiations rendered the availability of a work crew and the hard work began.

Once everybody started pulling in the same direction, the whole project came together surprisingly quickly. The toilet block was gutted and all the doors and facilities were removed. Holes in walls and gaping windows were soon repaired and the 5 Turkish toilets were cemented into the floor. The tiling was done very quickly and the new basins connected to the water supply almost immediately. Instead of repairing the wooden doors, some recycled aluminum doors were found and installed, rendering the toilets secure and lockable, going to the heart of Let Girls Learn. Without this security, adolescent girls often avoid using the bathroom or, more likely when they are menstruating, avoid school completely, impacting their education and their future.

The water pump was installed to ensure strong pressure but, good news, the watering schedule was such that there was no need to install the water deposit that had been budgeted for the project, so we have been able to return that money for use elsewhere. The final piece of the puzzle has been to educate the cleaners on how to clean the bathrooms professionally, as opposed to flooding the place with gallons of water that ultimately damages the facilities. This education and that of the teachers and students in the proper use of the toilets together with the involvement of the parents in providing ongoing supplies for their upkeep has been done by the Public Health Department’s school nurse. Her work is clearly ongoing.

After a six-month delay, Sheq I Madh has functional bathrooms that a parent recently confided “had never worked even when I was at school”. This project directly affects 250 students and the influence on siblings and other community members is huge. The legacy of this project will live on for generations of schoolchildren in Fier.

We are grateful to Graham for completing this great project. He has just completed his Peace Corps service, and we wish him the best.

Jani Vreto School Bathroom Project – Albania

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Jani Vreto School Bathroom Project – Albania

This project is made possible through the partnership of Water Charity and the National Peace Corps Association.
This is a project under the LET GIRLS LEARN Program, a collaboration of First Lady Michelle Obama and the Peace Corps to expand access to education for adolescent girls around the world!

Location
Leskovik, Korca, Albania

Community Description
Leskovik is a small town in southeastern Albania with just over 1,500 inhabitants. Due to the mountainous terrain and poor road conditions, Leskovik is quite isolated, with the nearest city being 2 hours away. During the Communist era, it was a city of certain military importance due to its close proximity to the Greek border, but the population has since fallen dramatically.

However, Leskovik is still known for its wine and music. The school is the largest source of employment in the town and surrounding villages with 30 teachers and staff. Jani Vreto is the only school building, with a total of 250 students in grades 1st-12th, approximately 120 girls and 130 boys.

Problem Addressed
The conditions of the school toilets present both safety and hygiene concerns for anyone using them, especially women and young girls. The restrooms in the school are in dire need of repair and replacement. Currently, there are two Turkish toilets for female students and staff, and two for male students and staff. There is no running water inside the school at all.

At the beginning of every week, large barrels are filled with water from the outside tap and one is placed in each restroom. With this water, students and faculty are expected to flush the toilets and wash their hands. Due to the height of these barrels, the younger students are unable to do either. The stall doors cannot be secured; many are even unable to close.

Project Description
This project will ensure that all four toilets are functioning and that both sinks are hooked up to water for the student body and faculty. It will involve replacing four Turkish toilets, two sinks and faucets, four aluminum doors that lock, as well as fixing the plumbing so that there is a direct connection to running water. This will also require the bathrooms be equipped with a water deposit to ensure students and faculty have access to clean water throughout the school day. This involves installing the deposit inside, as the climate is too cold during the winter months to be placed outdoors.

The local plumber, who is under a contract through the municipality, will do the skilled work. Cleanup will be completed by the school faculty and parents.

The municipality, along with parents, will provide the school with other necessities that are currently lacking (i.e. soap, hand towels, toilet paper, trash bins) as well as cover all labor and transportation costs.

After the construction has been completed, a group of teachers will begin designing lessons about hand washing and the importance of personal hygiene. Homeroom teachers will be responsible for conducting pre-arranged activities that show how quickly germs are spread and illustrate the importance of using soap instead of only water.

Project Impact
This project will impact 280 people directly, 250 students and 30 teachers and staff. The project also impacts guests to the school as well as future students.

Peace Corps Volunteer Directing Project
Stacey Weidemann

Monitoring and Maintenance
The municipality will maintain the facility with regular inspections. Community members and faculty will ensure that the restrooms are well stocked with essential materials.

Comments
Many girls miss several days of school each month due to the lack of a safe restroom equipped with running water. Regularly missing school due to unavoidable conditions may cause girls to stop attending school altogether. By addressing this problem, girls will no longer need to miss school because of menstruation. The inability to lock the stall doors poses safety concerns that affect all who use the restrooms but in particular women and girls.

When PCV, Stacey Weidemann first discussed this project with other teachers, she was surprised by how much they had to say on the subject. There are no restrooms exclusively for faculty, but Stacey had never thought about how it affected the teachers. The physics teacher, who has been working at the school for over 30 years, said that she used the restroom once. She told Stacey she walks home now when she needs to relieve herself; she lives on the other side of town.

It’s easy to understand why faculty and students have avoided using the restrooms. Even though the toilets are at the end of the hallway, the stench from the restrooms fills up the entire first floor. By midday, it’s the first thing you notice upon entering the school.

This project is part of our Let Girls Learn Initiative, and its sub-program 100 Water Projects Program – Albania.

This project has been fully funded.

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

Conclusion of Jani Vreto School Bathroom Project – Albania

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Conclusion of Jani Vreto School Bathroom Project – Albania

This project has been completed under the direction of Peace Corps Volunteer Stacey Weidemann. To read about the conclusion of the project, CLICK HERE.

Stacey reports:

At the beginning of the project, the school restrooms were in terrible repair. The toilets weren’t attached to water; students filled up buckets from a barrel of water in each restroom to flush toilets and rinse off their hands. They were not functioning restrooms at all. The lack of sanitation presented hygiene risks for both students and teachers alike. Many female students skipped school altogether when menstruating. All of these conditions had significant adverse effects on all students’ education and health.

Though this project had a slow start, as the municipality is approximately a two-hour drive away, it has been incredibly well-received. A small group of six 12th grade students volunteered to be given instruction and then to present their own lessons in each class on the topic of personal hygiene. They did this with the support of homeroom teachers and the local Peace Corps Volunteer. These lessons included interactive activities on how germs spread and information on why handwashing is important.

Once the plumber arrived, the renovation work was completed in the course of two weekends. The labor included installing new toilets with working pumps, new sinks, and a water deposit so that students and faculty would have access to water even during the harsher hours of the watering schedule in the warmer months. The stall doors were repaired and new locks were installed.

In total, nearly 300 students and faculty have directly benefited from this project. That number will continue to grow.

The village of Leskovik thanks Water Charity and the Let Girls Learn initiative.

We, in turn, express our congratulations and gratitude to Stacey for completing this excellent project.

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