Our Programs
Community-Driven Education (CDE)
Facts
Education in East Africa
Over one-fifth of children between the ages of 6 and 11 in Sub-Saharan Africa are out of school, followed by one-third of youth between the ages of about 12 and 14
Across sub-Saharan Africa, 9 million girls between the ages of about 6 and 11 will never go to school at all
47% of schools in East Africa lack basic sanitation services (toilets)
People with low literacy skills are more than twice as likely to be unemployed, and illiterate workers earn 30-42% less than literate workers
IMPACT ASSESSMENT
SINGIDA WASH AND EDUCATION PROGRAM, TANZANIA
Situated in the central mainland of Tanzania, Singida is a region divided into six districts with a population of 1,481,384 people. Despite having a population where 70% of its people fall under the age of 30, Singida is one of the poorest regions in the country. Access to basic social services is poor as 43.3% of its population still access water from unimproved sources and only 30.5% have basic sanitation services with 85.7% using unimproved toilets.
GPFD’s Community-Driven Education and Development Model (CDE) seeks to stimulate quality of community education via active engagement and participation. This specific project provided funding for construction of two new classrooms in a community named Mughunga and pit latrines in Laghanida Primary School. Outcomes targeted by this model included the increased attendance to the school, quality teaching, and reduced incidence of hygiene related diseases. Read the full impact assessment report below.
Featured Project
Kaswanga Primary School, Kenya
Kaswanga Primary School is located in Suba North, Kenya, serves 389 students and has 10 teachers. The community consists of approximately 2,000 households, and most people earn a living by fishing in Lake Victoria. Due to restrictions on public gatherings due to COVID-19, the GPFD-Kenya team met with small groups of school and local leaders who helped disseminate information and solicit input from the larger community. The school’s latrines (toilets) were identified as the greatest need as they presented a significant danger to the students. The girls’ latrine had collapsed, and the teacher’s latrine block was almost full and likewise showing warning signs of collapse.
The soil at the school is clay, and there is a very high water table. To make the toilets at the school safe and sustainable, our engineering team designed four blocks of SanPlat latrines for girls, boys, teachers, and ECD (preschool) students. The SanPlat latrines use trapezoidal blocks to line the pits, which help guard against the latrines collapsing in the future. The local community also contributed to the success of this project by digging the latrine pits, providing timber, and transporting water for the project using donkey carts.
