Eldana

Twelve-year-old Eldana says that before Splash came to her school in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, students drank water from concrete handwashing stations. The water piped in from the city was sometimes unavailable, so students drank from the water stored in tanks, rather than flowing from the tap as needed. Water was treated at the source but can be contaminated on the way to her school. She says some students got sick from waterborne diseases.

Concrete stations are common, but quickly fall into disrepair. They are not easy to fix if broken and maintenance is an issue. Instead of concrete or tile, Splash uses plastic stations with differentiated use: blue for drinking water and orange for handwashing.

In addition to the stations, Splash installed water filters onsite to ensure the water flowing from the drinking stations was clean and safe.

Eldana wants to be a civil engineer and build houses when she grows up. She’s the middle child, living with her two brothers and her parents. She thinks they would say that she is a good learner and is always happy.

She jumped at the chance to join her school’s Hygiene Club. When her teacher said that registration for the club was open, she wanted to be a part of it because she believes the training the club provides is just as important as any of her other school subjects.

In the Hygiene Club, Eldana learned that diseases spread through the air can also be spread through touch, and therefore how important it is to wash your hands to keep from getting sick. She also learned how to avoid wasting water and about keeping toilets clean. This is information that she shares with her classmates. Hygiene club members are also active around lunchtime, making sure kids wash their hands properly at the orange stations and drink water from the blue stations.

Eldana is proud to be a member of the Hygiene Club and contribute to her classmates’ health and wellbeing.