Oxfam East Asia

Arriving at STN 2 School in Sungai Limau yesterday there was a hum of excitement as children chatted to each other, waiting for the special activities planned to mark this year’s Global Handwashing Day to begin.

Global Handwashing Day 2009 - West Sumatra

Lessons had started back up at the school the day before, and despite having to abandon some of the classrooms that were no longer safe to enter, teachers and students alike were delighted to be back. Many schools I visited in this area, a couple of hours drive north of Padang, were completely destroyed when the earthquake hit. It’s a sign of people’s determination to get on with their lives that those that have been worst affected have simply moved outside, holding lessons inside tents or in the open air.

At STN 2, more than 400 children from three different schools had gathered together for a series of events Oxfam staff had stayed up all night planning. With many water and sanitation facilities here badly damaged by the earthquake, we’ve been particularly concerned about preventing the spread of diseases such as diarrhoea and tetanus. Washing hands with soap can reduce the risk of disease by up to 50 per cent, so finding a special way to mark Global Handwashing Day was a huge priority for our staff.

Kicking the day off with series of speeches and sing-a-longs, attention soon moved across to the schoolyard as children enthusiastically gathered round three life-size games of snakes and ladders. Rolling giant dice and walking across the board, they were able to climb a ladder every time they landed on a square showing safe hygiene practices, and fell down a snake for every time they forgot to wash their hands or store their water properly. Each roll that resulted in a climb up the ladder brought about a wave of contagious applause.

Across the yard, another source of much curiosity were the Oxfam buckets that have been set up for the handwashing demonstrations. Specially designed to help store and transport water, we’re already planning distributions of these to help communities who lost their containers and other belongings in the quake.

As the games came to an end, children crowded round as staff demonstrated the best way to wash your hands using the buckets as props. Everyone queued up to have a turn, expertly lathering up the soap and thoroughly scrubbing between their fingers and up their arms.

Ten-year-old Muraini laughed as she and her friends showed me their newly clean hands after a visit to the tapstand. “I wash my hands everyday,” she said proudly. “We’re having lots of fun learning about handwashing and playing games. My house collapsed when the earthquake hit so now we’re staying in a tent. We started back at school yesterday and I’m really happy to be here and to see all my friends again.”