Health and Environmental Education Program
For this project we visited Five Star and Kanyorosha Primary Schools located in Kangemi slum area.
Some of the classes were taken outside the school compound for the pupils to have a better understanding of their surroundings. Being a class of very young children, it was important to ensure that all their senses were being used for the effectiveness of perceiving things. We began by posing to the pupils what they thought about the environment they were in. The pupils stated that they hated it because it was so dirty.
At the end of our interactive session, the pupils agreed that it was in their power to change the environment by choosing how they lived and the things they decided to use every day. They further promised to practice good culture and embrace the kind of lifestyle the old ages had.
Every day, our environment is polluted and degraded because of humans. This therefore means that the human beings are also the solution.
The topic covered was on the types of waste and their examples and origin of waste and basic waste management strategies. These was meant to help in creating awareness to the children on the effects of not managing waste well, it was also meant to encourage students to actively participate in conserving environment, to create a positive attitude in conservation among the learners and also to grow a green generation initiative to the learners.
The students were taught on the basics of waste including it’s meaning, types of waste (solid and liquid).
Solid waste: waste that exists in solid state and including the municipal waste that are generated through the daily activities of people. For example waste papers that the students generates after their books are finished and dumped in the bins, feaces, used pencil and other stationery equipment, polythene papers, remains of food among other types of solid wastes.
Liquid waste: waste that is generated and is in water form including urine, sewage waste, dirty water, dissolved chemicals among others. A typical example was the sewage waste line that passes in front of five star Primary that makes the area looks filthy.
In the origins of waste, both the schools were taught on ways through which waste is being produced like domestic activities (washing of clothes, eating) agricultural waste generation like chemicals that end up in polluting the rivers. A case study of the farm that is situated along the schools that pollutes the river there with chemical agricultural waste. Generation of waste through industrial processes were also touched.
The basic principles of managing waste was introduced. These included recycling strategies, ways of reusing waste and the means and how to reduce wastes; the 3Rs strategies.
WASTE RECYCLING
Students were taught on how waste can be converted to other uses. For example the management of sewage waste and dirty water that is recycled to make clean water for drinking. There was the case on how the five star primary make use of toilet waste to make organic manure (humane)to use in their farms.
WASTE REUSING
This was illustrated by the ways in which the students can make use of the water they used in washing clothes to wash toilets or clean the rooms. Another scenario was how to keep using one water bottle for several times to avoid waste accumulation.
WASTE REDUCTION
The students were told that when they recycle waste and reuse the waste then there would be reduction in waste accumulation.
Kenya is one of the developing countries that have experienced rapid population growth with its consequence being the coming up of slums more so in urban areas. In Nairobi, for instance, the population growth has been accompanied by rapid development of housing units, both informal and formal.
Kangemi slum is one such example and it has over 150,000 people congested in a small valley with steep slopes rolling down to the Nairobi River. Because they are unplanned, slums usually have no basic services like running water, sanitation and electricity. There are no or inadequate toilets, garbage bins, schools or healthcare centers. Due to low or no income that the residents generate, they have no option but to contend with the contaminated water in their daily lives.
During this week’s training, Kanyorosha primary was closed due to unavoidable circumstances and as such we were not able to conduct our normal training. At Five Star, we were winding up with class one students on the very important topic on water pollution. As mentioned above, water is one of the challenges facing slum areas within Nairobi and thus this school is not an exception. The surrounding community faces a number of challenges in terms of water scarcity and waste management. The school is affected negatively due to the shortage of water supply and this poses great danger to the students as they are prone to getting diseases due to poor hygiene practices like not being able to wash hands after using the washroom of before eating.
On this topic, we defined water pollution as the act of making water harmful. Since the students had been taught on waste, it was easy for us to identify the two types of waste; solid and liquid. Our reference point was River Nairobi which just flows next to the school. Some of the common pollutants identified within the water body are plastic papers and bottles, pampers, torn clothes, sewage, and faeces.
From our analysis, we were able to conclude that humans were the leading pollutants because they are the ones who are responsible of disposing of this waste in the river. The most common effect of water pollution and low hygienic standards is the contraction of diseases. Without sewers or clean water and with people squashed together, disease spreads easily.
- Kanyorosha Primary School
- Five Star Primary
- Riruta HGM Primary
