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NEWS SPECIAL REPORT


A Just a Drop project supported by Travel Weekly’s Stuart Parish has given children at a school in Kenya access to clean water. Juliet Dennis reports


TANKS A LOT: The new tank has allowed Kilili School pupils to enjoy clean water on tap


Just a Drop helps Kenyan school


In the dry season, the 284 pupils and teachers at Kilili Primary School in Kenya used to have to fetch water from a contaminated river.


The children then had to carry containers filled with three to five litres of water to school. The toilets were not cleaned because of the lack of water and hygiene levels were generally poor. All that has now changed thanks


to the Just a Drop water charity. Through fundraising efforts, it collected the £8,753 needed to build a rainwater harvesting tank for the school and run an education project on water hygiene. Of that total, £3,926 was raised


by Travel Weekly managing director Stuart Parish, who took on seven physical challenges – dubbed the


‘Magnificent Seven’ – including the London Triathlon, a Man v Mountain event, a Tough Mudder race and two half-marathons. The rest came from fundraising


efforts by Hornsby House School in Wandsworth. Parish said: “It’s amazing to


see what Just a Drop and the team at Kilili Primary School has achieved. The new water tank has made a massive difference to the community and I’m hugely proud to have played a part in that.”


Project


Construction started in June 2017 to build a tank which can store up to 104,000 litres of water for the school’s 270 pupils, 12 teachers and two staff. The tank provides enough water


for the school’s needs for drinking, cooking and washing year-round. It has been painted with hygiene messages to reinforce the Wash education project. The tank replaces three small


water storage tanks that piped water to the school but frequently broke down. When this happened, and when other water sources dried up, children were forced to fetch water from ‘scoop holes’ in the River Mulata, which is contaminated with bilharzia, a disease caused by a parasitic worm. Providing the water tank on


its own was not enough to solve hygiene problems. Just a Drop’s Wash education


training has formed a crucial part of the project to ensure the water is stored safely and pupils use water properly to keep clean. Handwashing, latrine use, food


hygiene and diarrhoea prevention have all been part of an education programme, and the school has set up a health club to ensure the right practices continue.


MUCKING IN: Stuart Parish took part in seven physical challenges to raise £3,926 for Just a Drop


10 travelweekly.co.uk 4 January 2018 Maintenance


Another key plank of Just a Drop’s project was to make sure the school and parents were committed to maintaining the tank.


As part of this, a self-help group


was set up by parents to encourage ‘ownership’ of the tank. They have been involved in


every aspect of the project from the planning to the collection of building materials and the construction itself.


Impact


The project is expected to improve the pupils’ health in the long term, with fewer water-related illnesses and increased attendance. For deputy head teacher Thomas Kioko, the new facility has transformed life at the school. “It’s a miracle. This will change


everything,” he said. “We worked very hard to bring the materials to the site and helped build it. There will be less illness and our children will have a better education.” Just a Drop chairman and


founder Fiona Jeffery OBE, former chairman of World Travel Market, added: “The children can look forward to much brighter futures.” Pupil George, 12, said: “We have


had a serious water scarcity in our school, a problem we believe is now solved. After it rains, we will have plenty of water in our school for drinking and for cleaning our classrooms and latrines.”


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