Taking Back Fridays at a Primary School
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Info about the Taking Back Fridays at a Primary School
If you were to visit the Primary School in a village in Uganda on a Friday afternoon, you might expect to see children finishing their weekly lessons, eager to get home and start the weekend ahead. Instead, you would find some children knee deep in cow manure, with shirts or dresses off, using their hands to mix manure and water. Others would be on their hands and knees, spreading this paste across their classroom floors with their bare hands. This process, known as “smearing” is done to prevent infestations of jiggers and other pests in the dirt floors (barefoot children sitting in class are easily susceptible to infection from these insects).
When the process is finished, children are covered in manure from head to toe and have no soap and little water to clean themselves with before heading home for dinner. The community, including the Parent Teacher Association and School Management Committee, are working together to alleviate this problem by cementing the floors and plastering the walls of seven classrooms and repairing the wooden shutters used in place of glass windows. This would not only give Fridays back to the children of this school, but also create an environment more conducive to positive learning.
The community has worked tirelessly to contribute what they can to the project, donating cement, transportation and money for the purchase of equipment that will be donated to the school upon completion of the project. With the implementation of this project, the community will gain valuable skills and the education of all area primary school students will improve vastly.
Note: This summary was provided by a Peace Corps Volunteer and the community administering this project.