Sanitation at school is an important problem in Ethiopia. Many schools have facilities that are not in good conditions and as a result school children are unnecessarily exposed to health risks. A related problem is that the children get a poor hygiene image being exposed to dirty latrines and do not learn good hygiene behaviour. This also has implications when they become adults as facilities at middle and higher education level also have a lot of problems. So by the time they have children of their own they have accepted unconsciously that it is fine for latrines to be dirty and will not break this cycle.
GLoWS was developed in response to this situation. It is a problem-based learning approach that focuses on helping the trainees assess/frame WASH problems appropriately, and define practical actions to solve them. A key feature is that the training is provided to water professionals right at their workplace. This is important as government water bureaus in Ethiopia are under immense work pressure and cannot afford to let their staff go away for training for long periods of time. Trainers from local vocational training centres provide support and supervision from time-to-time. There is also a lot of focus on peer-to-peer learning and group work.
GLoWS was developed by MetaMeta, with support from Partners for Water, RiPPLE, IRC, SNV, WASTE, RAIN Foundation and UNICEF.
More info: GLOWS@metameta.nl
Produced by: TheWaterChannel
Year: 2013
Language: English
Region: Ethiopia
