Rehabilitation of Health Facilities in Many Schools in Rural Damascus
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Students face many difficulties when they lack clean and usable health facilities, as well as safe drinking water in schools. Poor health facilities can be a source of disease spread, such as hepatitis, typhoid, and cholera. Providing clean and safe health facilities in educational institutions undoubtedly has a significant impact on improving health and educational outcomes.
Therefore, the Diakonia and Social Service Department, at the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC), worked on renovating and rehabilitating health facilities in four government primary schools in Kaswa and Akraba in the countryside of Damascus, Syria. These schools are Akraba The 2nd, Zakia alsadisa, Khiara Z – N, and Khiara The 2nd.
The rehabilitation activities included the rehabilitation of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) infrastructure and its equipment, maintenance of the drinking water network, and installation of taps, toilets, doors, tile, ceramic, electric cables, water pumps and tanks, and water pipes in addition to completing the required painting activities. Moreover, solar energy work was executed.
The number of beneficiaries from the renovation work in the four schools was 2804 students, along with administrators. The MECC Diakonia and Social Service Department team also conducted a hygiene awareness campaign in these schools, where students learned about personal hygiene to prevent diseases and the correct way to wash hands. They received a school kit as well as an individual hygiene kit. The MECC team is preparing to distribute anti-lice kit to the students in these rehabilitated schools.
Ahmed, a fifth-grade student, mentioned, “The bathrooms in my school are much better this year than they were last year. I used to try to avoid going to the bathrooms because they were not clean, and the smell was very unpleasant. I couldn’t find a water faucet for drinking or washing my hands. I was also pleased to receive a school bag, a water bottle, notebooks, and pens. My school bag is old and worn out, and I’ve been carrying it since the third grade. I also don’t have a water bottle, so I rely on filling water in a small plastic bottle."
The director of one of the schools where the rehabilitation work was carried out said, “The health facilities in our school were out of service, leading to repeated student absences. The lighting was dysfunctional, and the tanks were very old, rust-filled, and leaking. Thanks to the Middle East Council of Churches for rehabilitating the health facilities in the school and ending the students’ and teachers’ suffering."
