No access to clean water at school causes high levels of sickness, absenteeism and poor results.

Ace Africa and The Mac Bevan Charitable Trust worked together to change this by installing water harvesting systems for 2,859 children in 5 schools in western Kenya, training teachers to teach students about hygiene and sanitation, and providing better public information.

The results were incredible and Ace Africa was asked to help other schools. The fantastic news is that The Mac Bevan Charitable Trust agreed to fund the same improvements in five new schools in urgent need. 

Below is the story of Manera Primary school, one of the first five schools to benefit from a rainwater harvesting system

The problem – dirty water, hippos and crocodiles

Students at Manaera Primary drank unprocessed water from a dam 2km away (photographed on the left). Children took 1.5 hours to fetch water, risking attacks from snakes, hippos and crocodiles. Speeding motorbikes and cars were also a huge risk.

In 2022, a girl drowned and children were scared to fetch water; they had to be accompanied by a teacher. The combined teacher and pupils time taken to collect water was equal to the loss of 120 lessons in a term.

School attendance was low due to water borne illnesses. Teachers did not have the skills to teach good hygiene, including menstrual hygiene for adolescent girls.  

The solution – a rainwater harvesting system and training

A rainwater harvesting system was installed. Two teachers were trained how to manage the system, as well as how to deliver health and hygiene education.  They educated all students, while 110 girls received menstrual health and hygiene education, and 60 vulnerable girls were provided with sanitary towels.

The impact – clean water, less sickness, better school results

• 604 children and 12 teachers have clean, safe water 
• fewer children getting sick from waterborne related illnesses, from anaverage of 15-20 cases a week to less than 10 a month.

• lower rates of sickness/absence helped attendance increase from 70% to 98%.
• academic performance improved because students were not sick at home, or wasting time fetching water
• toilets and classrooms now cleaned on a daily basis due to the availability of clean water; before toilets were only cleaned once a week.
• the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Education linked to the school and local communities, to monitor the water harvesting systems and hold more public information sessions

Thank you to The Mac Bevan Charitable Trust for enabling this project to happen, and for changing the lives of so many living in rural western Kenya.