GENGAVARAM TOILET CONSTURCTION

Every year, Asha takes up the task of renovating toilets in schools where the facility is either non-existent or of a very poor quality which renders them unusable. Under Asha’s Sugadharam project, we had completed work at Kayathar few months ago. (You may read the report here). In the month of July, we started work on the toilet at Gengavaram school in Villupuram district. Click here to see photos from this event.

The PUPS (Public Union Primary School) at Gengavaram has a total of 100 students, where 52 are boys and 48 are girls. The school is located in a remote area and hence has been largely neglected where sanitation has been concerned. The school had just one toilet for teachers and students, which was also in a state of disrepair. This lead to children not being able to use the facility and had to go out in the open. Since Asha has been associated with this school for the last 5 years, we decided to take up the construction of toilets here under our Sugadharam project.

Considering there are a 100 students at this school, just renovating the existing one toilet would not have been feasible. We decided to build a toilet building with 3 Indian toilets and 6 urinals. With this plan in mind, the toilet construction began on 16 July, 2023.

Since there had been no overhead water tank or septic tank, we installed those. The overhead tank has 500 ltrs capacity. We have installed taps in all the toilets and the urinals are equipped with buckets and mugs for use. One wash basin has also been installed for use.

Local construction workers were employed and the construction was completed within a month.

Inauguration Function

Asha and the school planned an inauguration function for 1 September, 2023. Mr. Rajaram, the coordinator of the chapter, travelled to Gengavaram for the inauguration. It was also attended by Paripooranam, the project steward and Dhinakaran, the project coordinator.

The children put up dance and song programs for the audience. It was well attended by the parents of these children as well. The inauguration also used as an opportunity to distribute stationery materials to the school. At the end of the event Rajaram cut the ribbon to inaugurate the toilet.

Currently, the old toilet is being used by the boys and the new toilets are being used by the girls. We hope that with Asha’s efforts, we are able to reach more schools to provide sanitation facilities securing the health and dignity for everyone.