School Health and Nutrition

1. School Health and Nutrition healthy to learn, learn to be healthy Seung Lee, Sr. Director for School Health and Nutrition Save the Children, Washington DC, USA slee@savechildren.org PHILADELPHIA GLOBAL WATER INITIATIVE November 4, 2010 1

2. Save the Children International Where we work Lasting positive change for children in need 27 SC members in 110+ countries

3. School health policies and community support Water and Sanitation What is SHN? (UNICEF SSH Manual) Skills based health, hygiene, nutrition & HIV/AIDS prevention education School based delivery of health & nutrition services To be healthy to learn and to learn to be healthy

4. Where we work in SHN/ WASH in Schools

5. MDG Targets and SHN GOAL 2: ACHIEVE UNIVERSAL PRIMARY EDUCATION Ensure that, by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling GOAL 3: PROMOTE GENDER EQUALITY AND EMPOWER WOMEN Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education, preferably by 2005, and in all levels of education no later than 2015 GOAL 4: REDUCE CHILD MORTALITY Reduce by two thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the under-five mortality rate GOAL 6: COMBAT HIV/AIDS, MALARIA AND OTHER DISEASES Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases GOAL 7: ENSURE ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY Halve, by 2015, the proportion of the population without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation

6. 69 million primary school-age children are currently out of school (UNESCO)75-101 million children in school are likely to drop out before completing their primary education (UNESCO) FACT: 272 million school days lost each year due to diarrhoea alone (WHO) FACT: 2 out of 3 schools lack decent toilets in the developing world (UNICEF) FACT: About 400 million school-aged children in the developing world have worms (WHO)

7. Parasitic infections among school-children Ref: Save the Children/US baseline surveys for SHN

8. How do parasitic infections affect education? Intestinal worms and schistosomes Malaria Anemia Malnutrition, diarrhea, and general malaise Neurological impairments and reduced cognitive functions (cerebral malaria) Reduced learning capacity and inability to concentrate Poor cognition and school performance, absenteeism, drop out

9. Periodically dewormed Not receiving deworming Lesson from the veterinary field These animals are of the same species, sex and age Ref: WHO

10. Government Collaboration • Creating partnerships with government at national, regional, district, local level • MOU including roles and responsibilities with Ministries of Health, Education, Water... • National working groups to promote national programs. (Donors, NGOs, UN agencies, Foundations, Gov’t) ETHIOPIAPhoto by Jenny Matthews

11. Community Involvement • Work with community structures (PTAs, LGUs, SMCs) to ensure contribution/buy-in (e.g. material and labor) • Train committees to maintain and repair facilities • Train village health committees/agents, parents, teachers, and district Ministry of Educationstaff on hygiene promotion MALAWIPhoto by Humphreys Kalengamaliro

12. Child Participation • Involved in design of health education materials • Peer educators • Share lessons with others and siblings • Monitor activities, student behaviors and school environment

13. WHO/UNICEF guidelines for low-cost settings Sufficient toilets are available: 1 per 25 girls and 1 for female staff; 1 toilet plus 1 urinal (or 50cm of urinal wall) per 50 boys and 1 male staff

14. Water Consumption • 2.5 liters per day recommended for health • An average American uses about 100 gallons (380 liters) water a day • The average American lifestyle demands 1,800 gallons a day to support, with 70 percent of that going to support our diets