Program Summary

This project intends to promote a Child friendly School model in selected schools within the Shaanxi Province, with the hope of it being adopted as policy by the Shaanxi Ministry of Education; Child Friendly School System is piloted and established in order to provide technical support and human resource for the promoting activities in the rural areas in the future.

Why we are doing it?

School is a very important place for children. The school environment directly influences children’s studying and learning abilities; and education provided at school influences children’s lives. It is crucial to provide health and sanitation training to children in rural areas at school because their home and community environments are not equipped with modern sanitation facilities.  The government is willing to pay attention to this issue and is looking to Plan China for technical support. This collaborative project will improve health and sanitation education in schools and influence children’s behavior. It will be promoted with government resources in broader areas if it has positive outcomes.

Our Approach

Plan China will invite national consultants to develop training materials to be used to train local teachers, community members or parents, who will be selected as local trainers. These local trainers will then provide training in schools and communities.

Program Goals

·         Pilot School Sanitary Facilities construction and maintenance standards

·         Develop and Promote curriculum on School Sanitation and Health

·         Build the capacity of local school’s and community’s on awareness of Sanitation and Health

Program Activities

·      Child-friendly posters and other educational material will be developed and distributed

·      Training for children in health and sanitation

·      Sanitary latrines will be built with funds from Plan China and the government to improve school sanitation

·      A detailed initial study and evaluation will used to demonstrate the effectiveness of this pilot to the government, whose close involvement in the program will ensure the key learning points can be scaled up in the future

Future of the Program

Plan China will publish a series of documents to support School Sanitation and Health Education practice.

Impact

The expected project areas will be 100 schools in 2-3 provinces in China, the direct beneficiaries will be 100 head teachers, 5,000 teachers and 100,000 children and their families. They will have better awareness and behavior of health and sanitation and live and study in a more child friendly environment.