Growing up in a clean and safe environment is every child’s right. Access to clean water, basic toilets, and good hygiene practices not only keeps children thriving, but also gives them a healthier start in life. Despite COVID-19 putting the spotlight on the importance of hand hygiene to prevent the spread of disease, three billion people worldwide, including hundreds of millions of school-going children, do not have access to hand washing facilities with soap. People living in rural areas, urban slums, disaster-prone areas and low-income countries are the most vulnerable and the most affected and Kenya is not an exception
The consequences of unsafe water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) on children can be deadly. Over 700 children under age 5 die every day of diarrhea diseases due to lack of appropriate WASH services. In areas of conflict, children are nearly 20 times more likely to die from diarrhea disease than from the conflict itself. Here’s Life’s response Here’s Life works in two slums to help provide access to clean water and reliable sanitation, and to promote basic hygiene practices in urban areas, including in emergency situations. We achieve better WASH results for children by:

Empowering communities
Here’s Life promotes community-based hand washing through a variety of media and through campaigns like community Hand washing Day, which reaches hundreds of hundreds of people every
year. Our people-based approach has helped entire communities eliminate the dangerous practice of open defecation, many of whom reached Open Defecation Free status in 2030.

Supporting schools
We work directly with schools and health-care facilities to improve access to basic water, sanitation and hand washing facilities, and to establish protocols for preventing and controlling infections. We support
menstrual health and hygiene in schools by constructing private, secure sanitation and washing facilities as well as menstrual pad disposal facilities. We also provide education and support services that help
more girls better manage their menstruation cycle.

Humanitarian action
A significant amount of our work occurs in fragile and emergency settings to help prepare for and respond to humanitarian emergencies. This includes transporting water, ensuring it is purified, and constructing toilets in low income areas. We work to construct water and sanitation facilities that outlast the emergency, while providing clear leadership and accountability in humanitarian response. In the past 3 years, for every dollar we spent, 86 percent went to programs and services that directly
benefited our targeted participants and our Advocacy on policy formulation and implementation work.