Centenary Year International Project

Centenary Sanitation

“That will be a great start to our Centenary Year! “exclaimed President Brian Blanchflower of Dunfermline Rotary Club on learning that the application for a grant towards the Club’s latest international project had been successful.

The project involves replacing a dilapidated, unhygienic, unsafe toilet block at Gakoiga Primary School in the Murang’a County of Kenya with a new ablution block and, most importantly, installing a 10,000 litre overhead plastic tank to store water for hand washing.

Noting that recent research had shown that 88% of diarrhoea-related diseases in rural schools in Africa were due to the poor sanitation experienced by school pupils, Brian went on to say “This new toilet block with its supply of safe water for hand washing will mean a huge improvement to the standards of sanitation, health and safety of the pupils. And, speaking as a former rector of Dunfermline High School, for me the important knock-on benefit will be for the pupils’ education due to the reduction of absenteeism because of health issues.”

The estimated cost of the project is £5,400 which will be funded by £2,800 from Dunfermline Rotary and a grant of £2,600 from The Rotary Foundation, the Rotary movement’s main charity.

Brian acknowledged the help being provided by the Rotary Club of

Lang’ ata in Nairobi who are going to manage the project on behalf of Dunfermline Rotary and noted “This demonstrates the international reach of Rotary and the helpful collaboration between clubs”.

Dunfermline Rotary received its charter in February 1922 and this project is expected to be completed by February 2022.