Water Schools has migrated. For the latest information about the Faith, Education and Water project please go to the Alliance of Religions and Conservation (ARC) website.
'Dragon boat race'. Image courtesy of James Ho.
Have you ever thought about the significance of water in the many religious festivals celebrated throughout the year? Well, after several enquiries we have decided to create our very own water festivals calendar.
The calendar highlights the importance and sacredness of water in a variety of festivals throughout the year, from bathing in icy cold water for Epiphany to drinking from the Zamzam well during the Hajj pilgrimage.
The calendar also includes secular festivals such as the UN World Water Day, which seeks to actively promote the need for access to clean water around the world.
Please follow this link to see the calendar for yourself, or click on the new ‘water festivals’ tab at the top of this page.
Abdul Kassim (second from right) with Water Schools and faith colleagues. Photo: Nicki McHugh, ARC
A soccer academy for Christian and Muslim girls in Kibera offers education and empowerment for young girls. The academy, run by Abdul Kassim, is located in the Kibera slum in Nairobi; the largest in Africa.
Growing up in an all female environment was the inspiration for setting up the school. At a young age, Abdul became very aware of the education imbalance between girls and boys. And so he now runs a school for girls which encourages not only learning, but team participation and empowerment – in the form of soccer teams.
An old maize sack being used to grow vegetables. Photo: Nicki McHugh, ARC
Abdul showed us the well he had dug to provide water for washing clothes; and how he uses old maize sacks to grow vegetables. Drinking water is provided by the local mosque for the students.
When we met Abdul, one of his girls’ soccer teams had just beaten the boys – he laughed that the celebrations on the return home from the match were very noisy!
The girls – aged from 8 upwards – would very much like to board at the school. It offers a safe environment in which to live and learn. For more information on the Kibera Girls Soccer Academy, please follow this link.
The "Happy Day Faith Academy", Kariobangi, North East Nairobi. Photo: Nicki McHugh, ARC
The Water Schools team visited Nairobi from 21-25 March to learn more about the water, sanitation and hygiene needs of faith school children. The team met with faith schoolchildren, teachers, faith representatives and NGOs and saw first hand the challenges children encounter trying to fulfil a very basic human need: going to the toilet.
One of the schools we visited, the “Happy Day Faith Academy”, has 75 primary school children and is based in the poverty-stricken area of Kariobangi, north east Nairobi. The children and teachers share their toilet facilities with the community residents and sadly, the facilities are far from salubrious with regular outbreaks of cholera and diahorrea.
Lunch being prepared for the children. Photo: Nicki McHugh, ARC
Despite these hardships, the Methodists try to provide clean water and a lunch-time meal for the children to encourage them to continue their schooling. Reverend Carol ouma Ososo noted: “We do know the consequences of failure to provide safe and clean water to our children – given that ours is an area where people live in squalid conditions and hardly few afford to buy clean water in their homes …”.We also saw wonderful examples of recycling – old maize sacks which had been turned into educational posters. And at weekends the school is transformed into the worship centre.
The Methodists are planning to extend their school this year, and hope to bring onboard another teacher to complement their staff.
Photo by Julien Harneis
Tuesday, 8 March 2011 is International Women’s Day. In his speech to celebrate the centenary celebration, the UN Secretary-General called for girls worldwide to have equal access to education. In many developing countries girls are often prevented from attending school because of the need to walk long distances to fetch water. Other factors contributing to absenteeism from school include inadequate toilet and sanitation facilities – in particular for menstruating girls.
Commemorating International Women’s Day, HE, Mr Ban Ki-moon also highlighted the need for improvements in women’s and children’s health. To read the UN Secretary-General’s speech in full, please visit: http://tinyurl.com/4eufqde
Policy to Practice to Policy: Connecting faith and conservation in Africa.
For many years faith-based groups have been working on conservation policies and projects across sub-Saharan Africa.
A new US Government White Paper outlines the work which faiths are undertaking to care for their natural world.
Examples of faith groups cited in the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) White Paper include the New Psalmist Baptist Church (NPBC), based in Baltimore, USA. The NPBC is working with ARC and UNICEF to promote water, sanitation and hygiene needs of schoolchildren in faith schools, specifically in developing countries.
Please link to USAID’s White Paper here.
Nicki McHugh and Mary Bellekom of the Waterschools team receive an envelope from Cameroon, containing 90 questionnaires from Muslim schools
As part of the first stage of our water schools research we have distributed questionnaires to schools throughout the Philippines, Cameroon and Uganda. We plan to compile the results by late January, and publish all of our questionnaire findings by December 2011. Findings so far show that lessons about water-related issues are not built into all the school curriculums, but that teachers in faith schools do try to incorporate this into their classes. We have, for example, heard from several Catholic Schools in Cameroon and Uganda: the questionnaires show that the most common toilet is a pit latrine and hand washing facilities are limited in almost every school.
Today, January 5, we received a satisfyingly plump envelope with 90 questionnaires from Muslim schools in the Cameroon. They were sent by the headmaster of a highschool there, who went to many of the schools personally to make sure that the information was filled in properly and collected.
If you would like to send a questionnaire to us from your faith school, it’s not too late. Download the pdf here and email it to us at nicki.mchugh@arcworld.org
