The community of Pachoj in Guatemala is 15 miles from the nearest town and challenging to get to – in the rainy season the trek to this tiny town can include more than a mile of walking along muddy roads that often become unpassable for cars. Because access to the town is so difficult, Pachoj lacks basic services like drinking water, sanitation, and electricity.
Despite this lack of infrastructure, one community member was determined to start a school in Pachoj. And when Cristian Misael López started working with the local Guatemalan development agency to build classrooms for his 37 students in 2016, he also made sure to prioritize water and sanitation facilities.
“Antes de la construcción de las instalaciones de agua y saneamiento, los niños defecaban al aire libre”, afirma Cristian. “Consumían agua contaminada y no cuidaban su higiene”.
Cristian trabajó con Water For People y una agencia de desarrollo local para cambiar estas realidades para sus estudiantes. Su pequeña escuela pudo construir sanitarios y estaciones para lavarse las manos, así como aprender a tratar las aguas residuales. Pero tan importante como estas nuevas instalaciones fue el plan de estudios que Cristian y otros profesores incorporaron para asegurarse de que los estudiantes comprendieran la importancia de utilizar las instalaciones.
“Con la formación que nos brindaron nos enseñaron a abordar la educación en higiene de una forma lúdica, innovadora y creativa”, comenta Cristian.
One of the methods the school utilizes is Hygiene Corners – a place in each classroom dedicated to learning about healthy hygiene practices.
The Hygiene Corners include resources aimed at reminding students of the importance of hygienic habits. In addition to storing toothbrushes, soap, towels, and nail clippers, the corners include a hygiene wheel that has drawings of hygienic habits – washing hands, brushing teeth, combing hair, clipping nails, and more. Several days a week, the teacher asks students to spin the wheel to determine which hygiene habit they’ll address in class that day.
"With the Hygiene Corners, we’ve helped the students’ hygiene improve, which has improved their self-esteem and even helped them avoid bullying," Cristian says.
Cristian says the new facilities have decreased absences at the school and students quickly started coming to school with better hygiene habits – such as washing hands before eating and after using the bathroom.
Marta es una alumna de quinto grado de la escuela y, aunque le da vergüenza hablar, está segura del impacto de los cambios en su escuela. "Me gusta mucho cómo está mi escuela ahora. He aprendido a usar el baño, a mantenerme limpia y por qué es importante lavarse las manos", dice. Antes, Marta dice que a menudo tenía dolor de estómago por beber agua contaminada, pero ahora los dolores de estómago han desaparecido.
"I talk with my mom about all these things that happen at school and the things the teachers teach us," Marta says. It has led to her mother to also practice safer hygiene habits, including using their household’s toilet and boiling water to make sure it is safe for them to drink.
"Before, I didn’t like the school as much," Marta says. "Now, I feel happy because it looks nice and is so clean."
Even in these furthest, hard-to-reach corners of Guatemala, students like Marta can now count on access to reliable water and sanitation, and they’re promoting the importance of these new services to their families and community – helping guarantee water and sanitation will be around and utilized Forever.
