Schools Sanitation Improvement and Enhancement Project: Enhancing the Educational, Hygienic, Health and Safety Environment
This entry has been selected as a finalist in the
Tapping Local Innovation: Unclogging the Water and Sanitation Crisis competition.
Teaching people, especially school children to refuse to use dirty and unhygienic public toilets and protest loudly and vigorously each time they encounter a dirty public
About You
Location
Project Street Address
Project City
Project Province/State
Project Postal/Zip Code
Project Country
Your idea
Field of Work
Sanitation
Year the initative began (yyyy)
1996
YouTube Upload
Web site (url)
Positioning of your initiative on the mosaic diagram:
Which of these barriers is the primary focus of your work?
Public information alone doesn’t change behaviors
Which of the principles is the primary focus of your work?
Move people up the sanitation ladder
If you believe some other barrier or principle should be included in the mosaic, please describe it and how it would affect the positioning of your initiative in the mosaic
Water: Teaching the youth and school children all the issues around safe disposal of Waste Water
Sanitation: Responsible use of Sanitation Facilities such as Public Toilets in the schools, and the communal areas at large, like at churches, parks, stadiums, hospitals, bus and taxi ranks, prisons, etc, where there will always groups of people at the same venue at the same time.
Hygiene: Teaching the importance of personal hygiene maintenance as well as caring for our neighbours’ personal hygienic needs in public toilets.
Name Your Project
Schools Sanitation Improvement and Enhancement Project: Enhancing the Educational, Hygienic, Health and Safety Environment
Describe Your Idea
Teaching people, especially school children to refuse to use dirty and unhygienic public toilets and protest loudly and vigorously each time they encounter a dirty public
Innovation
What is your signature innovation, your new idea, in one sentence?
Teaching people, especially school children to refuse to use dirty and unhygienic public toilets and protest loudly and vigorously each time they encounter a dirty public
Describe your innovation. What makes your idea unique and different than others doing work in the field?
Our innovation is different and unique in that it seeks to correct this scenario by adopting an approach that uses private sector specialists in Sanitation Education and Maintenance programmes as the people who maintains clean environment in public schools and places. Private sector like The Clean Shop, does the cleaning and hygiene maintenance of school toilets by employing parents as toilet cleaners and monitors. The parents are properly trained, motivated, supervised and equipped to undertake the massive cleaning task. The result is that the cleaning and hygiene maintenance of school toilets becomes effective and sustainable. Toilet paper which was not usually available, which leads to rapid blocking of the water borne systems when other wiping materials such as socks, newspapers, stones, grass, etc., are used, is issued to each child on weekly bases.
Initially building of new toilet facilities was thought to be a solution of getting rid of dirty toilets, but it was rapidly found that this was not enough as even new toilets very quickly became dirty, blocked and unusable. Hygiene and Sanitation education has been found missing destroying any chance at an attempt to train pupils in the proper use of clean toilets and wider
Delivery Model: How do you implement your innovation and apply it to the challenge/problem you are addressing?
• To develop the approaches in the use of the emerging private sector in contributing to the sustainable improvement of sanitation in the schools.
• To develop and implement training and awareness programme for better use of sanitation facilities in schools linked to vigorous teaching of fundraising projects by the schools to be able to continue on their own once The Donor and Corporate funding has sown the seed and stopped funding.
• To stimulate the sense of ownership by the communities in their schools by initiating a serious campaign in public participation processes in order to achieve acceptable buy-in in
How do you plan to expand your innovation?
In collaboration with University of Venda, I intend to start a parent teaching education system that will teach parents how to clean and maintain clean toilets in the schools based on the following plan:
Mechanics in brief
The Clean Shop intends to partner with the University of Venda on a drive to formally educate unemployed women in the Venda region and provide them with permanent employment thereafter. Through the partnership the University of Venda will offer a short course on the dynamics of cleaning and hygiene and will provide an accredited certificate upon completion. The Clean Shop will then deploy 3 graduates at one of the 100 schools, thus providing 300 permanent employment opportunities for the women in order to achieve the following objectives:
• Create clean, safe and useable school toilets for public schools in Venda
• Create school environments that are conducive to seamless teaching and learning
• Empower school children with life skills on the importance maintaining clean toilet at home and at school
• Educate, train and employ women from under-developed areas in Venda
• Facilitate skills transfer on the dynamics of sanitation and hygiene to women and school children
• Empower disadvantaged women with skills and knowledge to actively participate in
Do you have any existing partnerships, and if so, how do you create them?
we do have a number of existing partnerships in the form of our main and good clients we provide services t o and are happy and pleased to have us as their preferred service providers. We list them as follows not in order of importance as all are important to us and our social projects well being.
Currently The Clean Shop enjoys and does industrial cleaning contracts for big clients that include the following companies:
• AngloGold Ashanti Limited West Wits Operations Mine Hostels Cleaning
• University of Venda Students Residences Cleaning
• Harmony Gold Mines Toilets and Change Houses Cleaning
• National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) Offices country wide cleaning
• Royal Bafokeng Nation 10 Schools Cleaning in Rusternburg
• President Supermarket in Fochville cleaning
• Once off Deep Cleaning project for varies companies like factories and petrol stations
Some of these partnerships are as old as from June 1996 like Anglogold Ashanti Limited and Harmony Gold Mines. All these partnerships have been created by our own marketing strategy of highlighting to our clients that we have a value solution to their sanitation needs and negotiating working for them. Since 1996 we have never been dismissed from any contract due to non performance, the only termination was when a client had closed
Impact
Provide one sentence describing your impact/intended impact.
Our impact can be summarized by the way teachers and educators in the schools we work with have started using the same toilets as the school kids as they now appreciate that a clean toilet is for everybody, not only for teachers.
What are the main barriers to creating or achieving your impact?
The main barriers we face in creating an environment which could speed up our achievement of our impact is that the Government is failing to realise that the following problems have been positively identified in our schools and many parts of world:
• There is serious lack of sanitation infrastructure in all if not most of our schools
• This situation negatively impacts on learning capabilities of scholars where scholars have to leave the school yard to find a toilet in the bush or in the neighborhood
• There is poor health and mental development of pupils, especially now with the outbreak of cholera and many other diseases
• Social and cultural issues are that school pupils are not supposed to clean their schools’ toilets, thus there is a need for private sector involvement
• As the problem of sanitation in the schools is not being addressed, more and more black children are hating and abandoning schooling, contributing negatively to the economic development of the region
How many people have you served or plan to serve?
Our current clients, like AngloGold Ashanti Limited, the largest gold mining company in Africa has this to say about our toilets cleaning services we render to them:
We hereby confirm the following:
We would like to rate their performance under the following drivers:
1. Safety and Health: - They apply safety standards as per our requirements and their staff/cleaners are trained accordingly.
2. Cost: - Very efficient and competitive. Also assist in cost saving campaigns.
3. Production: - Standard of hygiene and cleanliness is excellent and backed by our Health Inspector’s monthly audits. Kitchens, ablution blocks and change houses are kept spotless clean and toilets clean all the time 24 hours a day every day of the year.
4. Technology: - The Company uses latest technology available and always prepared to look at new innovations.
5. People Development: - Have a well motivated staff and develops own people for better positions within the company. Since this contract/project inception in June 2002, the company has never experienced any industrial action thus making it a reliable and trustworthy Company. For Companies striving for quality service, excellent hygiene and cleanliness standards, reliability and trustworthiness we stand bold to be nominated for references on behalf of The Clean Shop cc. and we recommend them for consideration in
Directly
Employees 350
Employee Dependents 1400 South Africa
Mineworkers 15000
University students 12000 students
Royal Bafokeng Schools 12000 students
National Union of Mineworkers 80 employees
President Supermarket 300 employees
TOTALS 41130
Indirectly
1400 South Africa Employee Dependents
0
0
3000 families
0
The whole community that shop at the supermarket with access to clean toilets
1400
Please list any other measures of the impact of your innovation?
Other measures of the impact of our innovation revolve around the safety issues of using industrial cleaning chemicals and equipment. This can be reinforced by the following paragraphs:
“Safety is a constraint. Any new initiatives must be safe even when replacing practice that is even less safe such as filthy and unsightly ablution blocks. The argument of the lesser of the two evils cannot be applied to hazards associated with sanitation and use of cleaning chemicals.
The whole solution is dependent on the success of hygiene education and environmental awareness since no cleaning system can survive the constant abuse of toilets. Hygiene education itself is also dependent on a working cleaning system since pupils are unlikely to be responsive to hygiene, health and safety messages if the school toilets are not in a
Is there a policy intervention element to your innovation, if so please describe?
There is no government policy intervention to date in South Africa. We keep on talking to the stakeholders in Government, but we are sure that sooner or later they will start hearing us as did our current clients like the University of Venda, AngloGold Ashanti limited, Harmony Gold Mines, Royal Bafokeng Nation and their King, National Union of Mineworkers and President Supermarket in Fochville. These organization made it their internal policy that clean hygienic toilets and living areas are always clean as they provide them with happier and healthier employees.
Exactly who are the beneficiaries of your innovation?
Our beneficiaries are all the school children in schools we work with in South Africa and fortunate students at the University of Venda as well as the adults who are working on Gold Mines and in all building facilities we maintain clean in the country. Also important beneficiaries are all the people and parents we who work with us who are permanent employees of The Clean Shop and their families. Not forgetting all the owners of buildings we render services in as they know for sure that their employees and themselves are guaranteed clean offices and toilets all the time they are away from home and they are at their workplaces. For them we say:
This Entry is about (Issues)
Sustainability
How is your initiative financed (or how do you expect your initiative will be financed)?
Our initiative is self financed. Although our operations are completely directed to solving social problems like lack of proper and adequate sanitation facilities, for the sake of sustainability and growth, we work for profit. Unlike most NGO’s in the world we never pursue Funding Organization for project funds. We just carry on with marketing our services to organizations and companies that appreciate clean and safe environment for all the people that use their facilities like sports stadiums, mine hostels, etc., where public toilets are in demand to be kept clean all the time of the day. Therefore we charge a fee for our services and we do not work for charity and we do not utilize volunteer workforce as we believe that everybody who has worked must be paid a fair salary.
It is worth saying it here that we will never turn down a funding offer from any source. If we get a funder we could run training projects in other areas where there are no
Provide information on your finances and organization:
• Current Annual budget (2007 fiscal year):
Our current annual budget is R17 187 600.00 (USD $2 203 539.00)
1. Annual budget for the past 1-2 years (2006 and 2005):
Annual budget for 2006 and 2005 was R7 596 000.00
(USD $937 846.00) per annum, therefore for years 2006 and 2005 was R15 192 000.00 (USD $1 947 692.00)
• Annual revenue generated
1. What are your current sources and/or streams of revenue?
Our current sources of income are from the cleaning contracts we have with the following organizations / companies:
• AngloGold Ashanti Limited West Wits Operations Mine Hostels Cleaning
R5 856 000.00 = USD $750 769.00 per annum
• University of Venda Students Residences Cleaning R5 460 000.00 = USD
$700 000.00 per annum
• Harmony Gold Mines Toilets and Change Houses Cleaning R636 000.00 = USD $81 538.00 per annum
• National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) Offices country wide cleaning
R960 000.00 = USD $123 077.00 per annum
• Royal Bafokeng Nation 10 Schools Cleaning in Rusternburg R2 325 600.00 = USD $298 154.00 per annum
• President Supermarket in Fochville cleaning R144 000.00 = USD $18 462.00 per annum
• Once off Deep Cleaning project for varies companies like factories and petrol stations R1 800 000.00 = USD $230 769.00 per
What is the potential demand for your innovation?
The potential demand for our innovation is huge. Everybody, everywhere in the world, people go to the toilet more than once a day. Of all the people of the world and below heavens, nobody would like to use a dirty toilet. It is not high rocket science that we all love to use a clean toilet irrespective of our social standing, female or male, colour, religion, sexual orientation, able or disabled, tall or short, we all need a clean toilet when we need to relieve
What are the main barriers to financial sustainability?
From my point of view the main barriers of financial sustainability are caused by organizations and NGO’s who solely rely on grants and handouts for their survival. The Governments of the world and Funding Organizations should also not only rely on NGO’s to perform critical duties to uplift communities from poverty and despair, and only be willing to assist the NGO’s. ashoka Social Entrepreneurs like me and my company The Clean Shop should also be assisted with funds as we are also contributing tremendously to the upliftment of our people by giving the employment opportunities and clean safe toilet facilities. We need all the support also as we better in delivering the real services to the people of
The Story
What is the origin of this innovation? Tell us your story.
In effective sanitation, the process and the methods can be as vital as the facilities themselves. People may know the location and purpose of a sanitary facility, but not how to use it correctly, vastly undermining potential impact. Building pipes or constructing facilities without also building a system of maintenance or education leaves you with very little. I operate on the principle that clean facilities are the most powerful form of persuasion—the more visible the change, the more convincing are my strategies. I seek to win hearts and minds of my fellow people through clean toilet facilities, and the rest would follow. More basically, I realized our most powerful impact would emerge from changing the way people used toilet facilities in their daily lives, and creating a culture of personal accountability for sanitary practices.
I approach the problem from the perspective of an educator rather than a cleaning contractor. I taught the skills to maintain facilities and use them correctly. I also sought to inspire a change in attitude, teaching people to refuse to use dirty toilets. In my thinking, cleaning facilities is what ensures continued use—“no one wants to use a dirty toilet, no matter how poor they are.”
Please provide a personal bio. Note this may be used in Changemakers marketing material
Since I was very young, i recognized the importance of education. My father was a school inspector and my mother a school principal. Both my parents encouraged us as their five children to take pride and joy in our education, resulting in all of us now being highly qualified professionals. I loved school so much, I used to remain there long after the last bell had rung and always volunteered to help with ground maintenance or odd jobs.
This love of education has remained with me and after noticing more and more children off school grounds during school hours, I was driven to find out why. I questioned over a hundred children about their truancy and many replied that they were going to the toilet, which lead me to the schools to investigate. The results shocked me so much that I devoted my life to cleaning school toilets and schools in general.
I was one of the first trained black geologists in South Africa and worked as chief geologist on one of South Africa’s largest mines, with all the perks of a well paying job such as company cars and a house. I resigned from this comfortable job to follow a new path, and to give back to the education system that served me and my family so
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