Schools Promoting Learning Achievement through Sanitation and Hygiene (SPLASH )

SPLASH (Schools Promoting Learning Achievement through Sanitation and Hygiene) was a WASHplus program funded through USAID. The program aimed to improve health and learning among primary school pupils in four districts in Zambia’s Eastern Province (Chadiza, Chipata, Lundazi, and Mambwe districts). SPLASH worked within existing structures and systems of the Ministry of Education, Science, Vocational Training and Early Education, as well as other ministries such as the Ministry of Local Government and Housing and the Ministry of Health.

SPLASH worked to improve the health, learning and educational performance of primary school children and their teachers by improving sustainable access to safe water and adequate sanitation. The project also encouraged adoption of better hygiene and health practices in targeted schools and communities. SPLASH was implemented by the global environmental health project WASHplus, which was led by FHI 360 in partnership with CARE.

Emory University collaborated with SPLASH to conduct small scale applied research projects in order to better inform SPLASH's targeted WASH interventions. The goal of our collaboration was to assess the impact of hydration status on pupil cognition and to provide qualitative evidence of WASH behavior change and message diffusion through school children.

Publications:

  1. Effects of water provision and hydration on cognitive function among primary-school pupils in Zambia: a randomized trial (2016)

  2. ‘A child is also a teacher’: exploring the potential for children as change agents in the context of a school-based WASH intervention in rural Eastern Zambia (2016)

 

Study Location

Zambia

 

Target Population

Primary schools and school children

 

Principal Investigators

Matthew Freeman

 

IMPLEMENTING partners

FHI 360

 

Funders

USAID

 

Project Staff

Victoria Trinies, Anna Chard, Bethany Caruso