By Seung Lee, Director of School Health and Nutrition, Save the Children
This is the first time I have ever written for a blog. My friends will be surprised that it isn’t about food or travel, but they won’t be surprised that it is about parasites and latrines.
In fact, most of my colleagues and friends know that to dine with me is to risk conversations about bathrooms and worms while discussing the difficult choices on the menu (I usually want to try everything and anything that I haven’t eaten before). And they know that I have one of the best collections of pictures of school toilets around the world.
A Latrine in South Sudan
Today is Universal Children’s Day, which is a significant day for Save the Children because we work to help children survive and thrive through a variety of activities and programs we implement with rural communities. This includes our School Health and Nutrition program, which is implemented in over 20 different countries. The program focuses on making sure school-aged children are healthy enough to learn and play.
Deworming Children in Pakistan
De-worming children is one of the easiest activities that we provide, and it is appreciated immediately by children and their parents, who notice that the children are less tired. Sometimes, in countries where the prevalence of worm infection is very high, children will notice the worms that have been expelled from their own bodies as soon as they get the deworming pill in school.
In addition to de-worming children, we also conduct health education activities, including hand washing and HIV/AIDS prevention. The program also works to increase access to water, latrines and hand-washing facilities in schools. Hygiene and clean schools are key to preventing infections of many of the neglected tropical diseases (NTDs)!
A Toilet and Handwashing Stand in Nepal
To learn more about School Health and Nutrition Programs and/or Save the Children, please visit www.savethechildren.org.
All photo credits: Seung Lee
good article as usual!
I admit, I have not been on this blog in a long time… anyhow it was another enjoy to see It is such great case and ignored by so many, even expert. I thank you to succor making people more awake of possible issues.
Thank you for the interesting post. Happy New Years!!. Hopefully you didn’t have to to where your tactical body armor with all those knuckle heads firing their bullets above their heads.
I was watching the news there is debate over whether the world should refer to the new year as twenty-ten or two thousand ten. Which do you think sounds more appropriate?
I know this is really boring and you are skipping to the next comment, but I just wanted to throw you a big thanks – you cleared up some things for me!