Sana

Sana is a nine-year-old student who goes to an all-girls school in the Garden Reach neighborhood of Kolkata, India. She is the only child in the family. Her father is the main wage earner and a car driver by profession, while her mother does home-based embroidery and stitching work on garments for small-scale industries. They earn just enough to support their family.

Sana was nominated as the prime minister of her school’s child cabinet. She said that the Splash behavior change training — which includes the importance of handwashing with soap and conserving water — was hugely impactful and exciting.

She took the lessons to heart and made changes in her daily life. She now knows how to care for her own health by always washing her hands using the six handwashing steps before eating and after using the bathroom.

Next, she brought her newfound passion to her position as prime minister of the cabinet at school. Sana plays a key role in ensuring that children wash their hands before eating and that the tiffins used for mid-day meals are clean before the meals are served, to prevent any infections due to unhygienic conditions. She keeps a watch on school premises to make sure they are clean, and she is a resource to all other children on hygiene and handwashing practices.

Sana didn’t stop at her school. She — at nine years old — stands out for her efforts to bring about change in the surrounding community.

Children in her cabinet noticed that people in the settlement around the school were wasting a lot of water from the public water supply points on the road. From the training, they learned about the importance of water conservation. Children from Sana’s school and one of the neighboring schools decided to work together to raise awareness in their local community about wasting water.

Sana came out as a fearless and confident advocate for this cause. She took part in a street play organized in the neighborhood and personally led ten meetings around public water tap points to appeal to individuals to stop wasting water. The teachers at her school took pride in hearing from adults in the community that the kids had made a big impact — the surrounding area became visibly cleaner, and water wastage has decreased.