Providing a healthy environment in schools to promote better education!

The initiative

Support My School is a WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) initiative launched by Coca-Cola India and NDTV in association with the UN-Habitat, Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) in 2011. The motto of this initiative is to provide a clean and healthy ambiance in several government schools so that students get a holistic learning environment.

Schools in the rural and semi-urban areas

There are several government schools, especially in the rural areas which do not have separate toilets for girls and boys. The students don’t have access to water and a poor infrastructure. The schools also do not have clean playgrounds and clean classrooms. Without these basic amenities, schools can hardly provide a healthy environment for students which is favorable for learning.

Many girls drop out of schools because there is no separate toilet for girls. Sanitation issues and poor access to clean drinking water results in absenteeism. According to several studies, the drop-out rate is maximum in schools that are located in semi-urban and rural areas because these schools lack the basic amenities.

Mission of the Campaign

The future of a country depends on the quality of education provided to the students. If a large section of students drop-out of school due to an unhealthy environment, it is a serious matter to worry about.

Support My School is a campaign with a mission to revitalize 1000 schools in our country. The mission is known as Mission 1000.

The core activities that this campaign undertakes are as follows:

·        Improved access to clean, drinking water.

·        Proper sanitation facility for boys and girls.

·        Sports and recreation facilities.

·        Recharging groundwater through rainwater harvesting.

·        Overall improvement in the environment and the infrastructure of a school.

Conclusion

Such programs are the need of the hour to improve the education sector of our country. The Support My School initiative by Coca-Cola India and NDTV is in line with Swacchh Bharat Vision and promises to bring about a major change in the quality of education in our country. This initiative has already revitalized many schools in the districts. After getting revitalized, the schools have reported of higher attendance of students and increased enrollment.

Thus, we should wholeheartedly support this campaign, to our best abilities. Let’s hope that this wonderful initiative is able to bring more and more students to school and provide them with a holistic learning environment.

Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world ~ Nelson Mandela

  

The WASH programme in association with Coca-Cola

The long-term health of a society depends largely on improved sanitation, hygiene practices and usage of safe drinking water. Everyone must understand the importance of clean and safe water in everyday use. Plenty of people in our country do not have access to adequate sanitation and safe drinking water. 

There are several rural places in our country where sanitation is a huge problem. The people of these places do not have access to toilets in their house and therefore they have to go to the fields. Such practices are extremely unhygienic, which exposes them to various diseases which can be life threatening.

Even in the slums of urban cities, people don’t have access to clean toilets in their houses and many communities drink unsafe water. As a result, these people are left vulnerable to diseases such as diarrhea. 

Proper sanitation is extremely important for maintaining the health of society as a whole, both in rural and urban places. Poor hygiene practices, inadequate sanitation and lack of access to safe drinking water can result in waterborne illnesses such as diarrhea and pneumonia. Vector borne diseases such as malaria and dengue are also common in such scenarios. 

It is seen that a lot of children get afflicted with these diseases every year and the death rate is also very high in children due to improper sanitation and poor hygiene.

The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) University and the U.S agency for International Development (USAID) have launched the wonderful initiative “Strengthening Water and Sanitation in Urban Settings” recently in Kolkata, in association with Coca-Cola. This initiative is also known as the WASH program as it focuses on the words Water, Sanitation and Hygiene. Not only Kolkata, this initiative is also launched in several other cities of India.

The objective of this initiative is to reach 50,000 beneficiaries in low-income settlements such as the slums of Kolkata. The motto of the WASH program is mainly to reach 300 professionals through WASH governance studies and near about 2500 students through 20 municipal schools across the country.

This unique association promises to lead to the healthy development of low income settlements of Kolkata. The WASH program aims at strengthening water and sanitation in urban settings so that the overall health of the people of the city is improved. Once the program is implemented in full force, development will surely follow.

The future of a country depends on the health of its people. The WASH program promises to be the ray of hope, leading to the healthy development of the country.