Rotary’s WASH project hailed a great success

The Covid-19 pandemic brought along many challenges for residents in rural areas. The Rotary Club of Polokwane has identified a need to provide better sanitation facilities at places where the sources of clean potable water are unreliable and all available water has to be used sparingly.

One of the institutions that were identified, was the Siloe School for the lind and Partially Sighted.

According to Rotarian Ursula Moodie, Covid-19 has introduced extra demands for water to be provided for hand washing and this is where the Rotarians saw an opportunity to assist. “The school offered the club discarded metal school desk frames and with the help of several Rotarians, some Rotary ingenuity and a newly qualified welder, the project got under way,” Moodie explained.

The first stand was delivered to Siloe in July 2020 and since then, two more stands have been delivered. These stands each have three washing stations that can service 100 children per station, according to Moodie.

“ t was then decided to make single wash station stands for some of the preschools which have allowed us to use their premises for training preschool teachers in previous years. This time we designed user-friendly stands with height accessible to preschoolers, this has provided hand washing facilities to approximately 350 preschool children,” Moodie added.

A wash station consists of a 20-litre water bottle, a bucket holder to catch all the water from hand washing and finally to water trees and a bottle of sanitiser. “The stands were received with enthusiasm and were put to work as we left. We continue to monitor the durability and use of the stands with a view to improving the design where possible,” Moodie concluded.