29 November 2021.

Thanks to your generous support more schools in Zambia are benefiting from new hand wash facilities.

Twelve hand wash stations have been built so far, as part of the second phase of our Safe Hands initiative in the fight against COVID-19.

Twenty stations will be built in ten schools in the Lusaka District. This includes busy urban schools like Chingwere Primary School with 2,031 pupils and Lilanda Combined School with 3,485 pupils.

Eight of our graduates have been building the new facilities, overseen by Build It Site Agent Chilufya Ndalameta. The graduates have divided into two teams and are making great progress.

Striving for excellence

Build It is a learning organisation, and we continue adapting and improving the work that we do. As a result, we have made some small changes to the hand wash stations.

The concrete pillars holding the water pipe now have chamfered edges. This makes it safer for the children, and less prone to knocks which can cause cracking. The pillars have a neat cement finish layer, which gives a sealed surface coating reducing the amount of water which soaks in. This will help protect the blockwork and plaster.

L-shaped hand wash station at Kamanga Primary School

We are now adding gaps at the bottom of the pillars to allow water to flow during heavy rains. We have included a bigger handle so that it is easier to open and close the valve of the water pipe.

The hand wash stations we constructed in Phase One were a mixture of single hand wash stations, with space for 18 children, and double hand wash stations, with space for 36 children. Most of the schools in Phase Two will have single stations as space is more limited in many of these urban schools.

The pandemic continues to cause challenges to the lives of children and young people across the world. Thank you for your support.