By Moses Nyirenda
Lilongwe, Mana: Rotary Club of Bwaila-Lilongwe has intensified the mission of rehabilitating old toilets in all Lilongwe District primary schools, as one way of promoting good sanitation in the schools.
Speaking on the sidelines of toilets treatment exercise which was held at Chitipi and Likuni Boys Primary School on Tuesday, Rotary Club of Bwaila President, Dr. Stella Kasirye said that as a rotary club among other things they look into sanitation issues hence their new initiative.
“Rotary club has different focus areas and one of them is sanitation and hygiene, we also have a focus for each month and this month our focus is literacy and basic education.
“It is very often that when we think about education we forget sanitation as most of the times we think about the desk, the school, the teachers and the books, yet sanitation is a huge factor in ensuring that children get good quality basic education and this is why we decided to promote sanitation in schools,” Kasirye said.
She added that, the initiative is also being carried out under the project which her rotary club is implementing in a bid to help in addressing various challenges which are being encountered in the country’s primary schools.
“We have a bigger project called ‘Life giving school’, and with this project we believe that if school gives life it cannot be a place where children come and get sick from diseases like cholera because of poor sanitation.
“Therefore we also decided to serve the schools with this project by making sure that there is good sanitation in the schools,” she said.
In his remarks, Chitipi Primary School Deputy Head-teacher, Marnewick Chipasula commended Rotary Club of Bwaila-Lilongwe for its initiative saying that for longtime students at his school have been struggling to access the school toilets due to poor condition of the toilets.
“We have a very big problem whereby our toilets especially the learners’ toilets are almost full and learners especially in the infant section that is standard one and two particularly those who come at school barefoot are unable to use the toilets because of the poor state of the toilets.
“But now that the Rotary Club of Bwaila-Lilongwe has treated our toilets, we have a hope that our problem will come to an end,” Chipasula explained.
Toilets which were full at both Chitipi and Likuni Boys Primary School have been treated with DOXA Clean Powder which among others disintegrates fecal matter leaving the toilet empty and free from flies as well as cockroaches.