Rotary Club launches WASH project at Henderson P...

Rotary Club launches WASH project at Henderson Primary

Patricia Mashiri

Zim Now Writer

The Rotary Club has been commended for launching a global grant project which aims to build ablution facilities as at Henderson Primary School in Mazowe.

This project was done in an effort to provide access to clean water, sanitation and hygiene facilities to the school.

During his speech, the lead applicant of the Rotary Club International grant, John Hudson said he has always wanted to do a project for Henderson community as he once lived in the community and he realised the dire need of ablution facilities.

“A lot of paperwork was needed to facilitate the grant application. It took quite some time before we could say we were to receive a positive response from Rotary Club International. I kept on asking for information like the school enrollments, pictures of the existing toilets, plan for the new Ablution Facility, Bill of quantities, quotations from builders, quotations on the cost of materials and many other things.

“Thanks to Joan and her team for continuously providing the information. At times it demanded quite a lot of things. A construction schedule was also drafted. It showed the materials required for each stage, their cost, transport costs, labor costs and duration for each stage. All this was really a mammoth task, considering that the suppliers of information were also tied up with their everyday duties,” he said.

According to United Nations, without safely managed water, sanitation and hygiene issues young girls and women are prone to abuse.

Johnson Mudzingwa, Mazowe ward 35 Councilor expressed gratitude to Rotary Club for its support as it will go a long way in supporting the girl child in their sexual and reproductive health issues.

“We know girls have moments when they need sanitary issues. This development which you are bringing in to Henderson Primary School I really appreciate. It has been a problem which you are going to solve and help especially the girl child.

“I hope the seed of development that has been cultivated here will also help encourage us parents to be involved in community development,” he said.

Henderson Primary School headmistress, John Nyabango said the donation of the ablution facilities came at the right time as the facilities they had were built when the school started were now incapacitated in servicing 405 students which they have at the moment.

“We are so excited, so thrilled. You can see the old buildings that we were using. Some of them were now dangerous to the members. This coming in of the Rotary club has been quite a great relief to us. At the moment we have 405 students,” the headmistress said.

The core activity of Water Sanitation Hygiene emphasises the teaching of basic sanitation and hygiene to communities and school children with a particular focus on girls' education and gender equality, as a necessary complement to the success of water and sanitation infrastructure project.