Field Ready brings Local Manufacturing WASH to High Schools in Fiji

Group Hand-Washing Stations help High School students and evacuees to stay healthy

Field Ready is manufacturing and installing Group Hand-Washing Stations at High Schools across Fiji and the Pacific islands. These are prefabricated devices designed by Field Ready for local conditions and manufacture, that enable handwashing for four people at a time.

On 24th February, Field Ready in partnership with USAID’s Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance (BHA), delivered and set up a Group Hand-Washing Station for Lami high school that will serve a total of seven hundred and sixty-three (763) beneficiaries including school students, teachers, staff, students living with disabilities, parents, and guardians.

This Lami high school Group Hand-Washing Station enables handwashing prior to eating, after using the washrooms, and after outdoor activities. This helps to promote daily hygiene practices in the school and reduce the spread of communicable diseases. Washing hands as a group gives greater access, reduces waiting time, and encourages students to do this socially, making it more fun for them, and increasing important health and hygiene risk-reduction habits.

The Rapid Response Manufacturing in the Pacific project is sponsored by BHA and implemented by Field Ready in the South Pacific region, making and supplying essential water, sanitation, and hygiene items locally.

The principal Mr. Naisa Cam Toko said, “Students will experience the upscaled sustainable group handwashing station in Lami high school that will support hygiene throughout the academic year during water cuts/ disruptions which is a common occurrence in our school. We are very grateful for this help and it will improve the health and hygiene of our school community”

The hand washing station is movable and is able to serve a wide range of activities at the school, such as school functions, and sports events occasions the station may be strategically located in areas of high use or traffic.

This Group Hand Washing Station is designed in an inclusive way to accommodate children with disabilities as well.

Handwashing activity done in groups provides a practical learning experience based on the principle of skills-based education. Additionally, it encourages peer learning, leading to improved social norms, and is a motivating and fun activity for the students.

Better Buckets

Field Ready also handed over two (2) Better Buckets to Lami high school. These were received by Mr. Naisa Cama Toko the Principal of the school.

This OXFAM-designed bucket, accepted as the industry standard by UN (United Nations) agencies and NGOs, is now produced in Fiji by Field Ready with partners Manubhai Industries Ltd. It provides safe storage and easy access to 14 liters of drinking water.

Lami High School is located in Lami Village seven kilometers from Suva City, the capital of Fiji. The school is used as an evacuation center during disaster periods from seasonal cyclones and floods, and so the above facilities will also serve the hygiene of the Evacuees.

The Field Ready Team also trained two teachers from the school on how the station should be maintained and serviced to ensure full operation capacity with limited downtime.

Field Ready was able to help the hundreds of people in this community thanks to the generous assistance of the People of the United States of America through the USAID Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance, with more assistance to be provided to further schools and health facilities in the coming weeks and months.