Teaching WASH at the SOS Children's Village

Yesterday, Environmental Youth Ambassador Salma Edrif wrote about global problems with access to clean water and sanitation. Improving these services is the sixth Sustainable Development Goal. Today as part of our "Road to Marrakech" social media campaign leading up to COP22, Salma shares how the EYAs recently took action on WASH: Water for Sanitation and Hygiene.

The Environmental Youth Ambassadors recently visited the SOS Children's Village
to deliver a lesson on Water for Sanitation & Hygiene

Following the example of Dar Si Hmad’s Water School in Aït Baamrane's primary schools, the Environmental Youth Ambassadors recently broadened the project’s target by bringing it to SOS Children Village in Agadir. The Water School is an environmental educational project for youth in southwest Morocco.

Dar Si Hmad’s team implemented the Water School project in order to help the children of Aït Baamrane villages benefitting from the fog project adapt to the new luxury of water in their homes and learn about Morocco’s diverse climate, fauna and flora. The School brings a series of classes on ecologically-sound water practices taught through a curriculum of adaptive hands on-activities stimulating children’s curiosity and lust for learning to build their capacities in the 4 pillars of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM).

After working in the Water School's original classrooms, the EYAs brought the lessons to Agadir's SOS Children Village. They spent one memorable Saturday afternoon with 40 kids aged between 6 and 10 years old.

The EYAs selected Lesson 6 of the Water School curriculum: Water for Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH). The activities of the session aimed to draw the children’s attention to germs: their existence, how they spread, and the causes of contagion. The afternoon included fun activities teaching students the proper method to wash their hands using soap and water. They also discussed the importance of handwashing after and before specific activities every day in order to avoid contagion.

As the curriculum is based on STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, and Science) subjects, the SOS Village afternoon included the use of microscopes and magnifying lenses allowing students to explore the miniscule world around them. Students improved their teamwork skills by helping each other wash their hands and tapped into their artistic minds to represent germs' contagion. They EYAs served as mentors to encourage them to commit to sharing their knowledge about proper sanitation practices with their communities.

The EYAs hope to continue sharing the lessons of the Water School around Morocco. We will be highlighting the project at COP22. Learn more about the curriculum in our "Streaming the Water School" series and join us online for regular updates!

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