Global Handwashing Day 2011

Saturday night, 15^th October 2011: knackered. Global Handwashing Day is over, thank goodness. It was a long day, and a frustrating one, but in the end the event turned out well and I think we held one of the more successful events around the country. Go Lakes!

Together with local organisation RUWASSA and some very limited input from other organisations, and almost counter-productive input from local authorities, we coordinated Global Handwashing Day celebrations here in Rumbek. From the outset time was against us. While our team had approached the government some months before the big day there had been no movement until ten days before, when the Lakes WASH Cluster group met. It was my first meeting; I was thrown into the co-chairing of this meeting with Oxfam GB as lead WASH agency and came to the rapid realisation that in this role it was basically up to us and RUWASSA to get this thing happening.

So, a number of often painfully slow and unproductive meetings later, and some spoon-feeding of the authorities (even down to writing of invitations for them to deliver to the important people that would do speeches), we put our heads together and came up with a plan. Hold the celebrations at a local school, Riak Dor Primary School, invite the 11 other schools to participate with 200 of their students, get some of them to come up with songs and drama to perform in front of everyone, and get some representatives of the Depts of Health, Education and Rural Water to give some speeches about the importance of handwashing. Get a company in Nairobi to print t-shirts and banners which we give out to the schools or put up before the big day. Give kids a bunch of buckets and jerry cans to set up hand washing stations around the school. Use the local radio and tv stations to promote the event and put out hygiene messages, and cover it on the day. Get the local bottling companies to donate water for our esteemed government guests. Then get everyone washing their hands by the end. Sound simple enough? Ha! Not in South Sudan, and not with only ten days to spare – especially when our government friends want to make everything as slow as possible. Yes our t-shirts should have every single possible logo on them, but we’re not contributing anything financially to the day. You’re NGOs, you’ve got money, you should pay for it. And No, we don’t have the most up to date logo, but you can’t use that one on there, it’s out of date.

On the day, I must admit I was a little bit too enthusiastic. I got our public health promoters to turn up with me at around 7:45am. It wasn't that early, considering things were supposed to kick off at 8:30am with the first speech. But of course, I should have known that Africa Time would intervene. No-one was there when we arrived to put out all the chairs, except for the deputy principal, who was a bit more organised than many of his counterparts. In fact, only a few schools had arrived by 9:00am. The sound system, organised by the Dept of Information, only arrived on the back of a ute at around 10am. Timely! And none of the dignitaries, bar the Director General (D-G) of Education and the Minister for Physical Infrastructure, bothered to turn up.

So, around 10:30am, when most of the schools had finally arrived and everything was in place, we kicked off proceedings. I was actually glad that only two of them came. It meant only one hour of boring speeches rather than two. These guys like to talk! And my speech went twice as long as usual, as it had to be translated into Dinka. 

But once that was out the way, the fun stuff began. The D-G was keen to be the first one to wash his hands and he hammed it up to the crowd, firstly serious with the hand washing part but then graduating to a full face wash, including his bushy beard, which the kids thought was hilarious.

Five schools performed something: whether it be a drama, a song, a dance, or a hand washing demonstration, the kids did what comes naturally. We got a sneak preview before the day started, as the chosen performers warmed up for their big performance, but watching them against a backdrop of hundreds of dark faces with blazing white smiles and equally bright uniforms was something else. They were great.

 

What I liked most was seeing each school arrive from somewhere off in the distance, their chanting songs preceeding them together with the deep sound of their drums, their bright blue or green uniforms blazing in the sun, their almost perfect marching unison characterised by swinging arms, the lead children brandishing UNICEF banners or messages they’ve composed themselves. I loved the way they marched around and across the school compound before finally setting up their place amongst the other students underneath the old frangipani trees. And even at a young age, girls here certainly know how to make some noise! I’ve quickly learned what ULULATING means. I normally associate it with middle-eastern women, but South Sudanese women certainly have a talent for it!

It was a long, hot day for the kids, especially the ones who had turned up early. At least they got the first-in, best-dressed benefit of the shade of the frangipani trees. The others had to slog it out in the hot sun. Once the DG and the Minister closed the day with more too much talking, everyone split quick-smart, leaving behind a school playground soggy with handwashing water, soap and the remnants of a crowd once there. So we packed our bags and went out for a rewarding Ethiopian lunch – and then home to recover.