Safe Water and Sanitation!

My friend Son loves to paint and draw. Out in the country where he lives, there are many beautiful scenes to draw, but life is also very hard. Simple things that we take for granted are not available. But listen to his story and see how things are changing.

Dong Ngoc Son CWS Vietnam

Dong Ngoc Son (pronounced Dom Nyop Shaung) jumped up and down. He was that excited. His drawing had won the contest in the preschool division at his school. His picture would be turned into a wall-sized mural on a new building at his school — the bathroom.

Son lives in the countryside of Vietnam. His family and those around him have toilets that are just a board with a hole over a pit. His school’s old toilet was the same because there wasn’t running water for flush toilets.

Poor sanitation like this makes the local water supply often unsafe to drink, so many children in Vietnam get sick with infection and disease. But a Church World Service program is helping to change that. Over the last three years, improved flush-toilets and safe drinking water have been provided to 165 kindergartens and primary schools. The school officials learn how to manage the new water systems. The children are taught how to use the toilets and the water faucets. With better sanitation, they will not get sick so often.

“I like the toilet in my school better than the one in my house,” says Son. Parents are paying attention to their children’s comments about the new toilets. Many families will find ways to have flush toilets at home, too. That is part of the larger plan of Church World Service: to get families to adopt better sanitation at home by seeing how it is done in the schools.