A School with No Toilets?

The village of Whankai’s Town in Liberia, West Africa, has no electricity and no clean water. ‘Going to the toilet’ means going behind a bush for everyone - babies, children and adults - and ‘washing your hands’ is not an option. The challenges for children growing up in Whankai’s Town are not only that they have no access to education, no chance to learn to read and write, but also no access to clean water and toilets and the health and hygiene that come with them.

But let's rewind a bit .... Can you imagine a village without a school? It was that question that led a small charity in Stafford to start fundraising for a school for 150 children in Whankai’s Town, Liberia.

Two years later, the main construction work is complete and the school is taking shape. The focus has moved to plastering, painting and making chairs and desks. Three teachers are in place, and some sponsors have started to provide them each with a small salary.

However, building a school must mean building toilets. Children need safe surroundings to benefit from education. Young people growing up in Liberia today, in the aftermath of civil war and Ebola disease, and experiencing extreme poverty, face many challenges. The school will provide a creative setting where they can learn about treating their bodies with respect, as well as learning the knowledge and skills they will need for their future.

Can you help to bring this dream into reality?

To provide these young people with dignity as the new school established?

Local labour has built the school, and can build the toilets. But sand and cement, blocks, nails and zinc need to be transported from the nearest town, more than two hours away, on roads that are only passable in the dry season. A well is being dug to supply water, and the cost of that has already been donated. The total remaining cost for the toilets - material, labour and transport - is estimated at £6,000.

Together we can provide what children in the UK rightly take for granted. Education in a clean and healthy environment.