ACAHIJEC Overview

 The Cameroonian Association for Hygiene Assistance and the Integration of Young People into Communities (ACAHIJEC) was created in 2017. It was declared on February 27, 2019 with the services of the prefecture of the Department of Mfoundi, under the number 00000237. It is located at the Maetur Nkomo behind the Marc Vivien FOE complex in the Yaoundé City Hall district 4 where it is regularly registered under number 0052.

The Association has set itself the following objectives :

Promote and instill good hygiene practices in populations ;
Contribute to the education of the community on the proper management of household waste ;
Promoting volunteerism within society ;
Fight against floods through actions aimed at promoting environmental hygiene and sanitation ;
Promoting patriotism ;
Train young people in hygiene and cleanliness professions and promote their socio-professional integration ;
Assist households in the pre-collection of their waste ;
Encouraging innovative initiatives in the hygiene sector ;
Contribute to the development and fulfillment of its members.
After carrying out several actions in favor of the population in raising awareness of good practices of hygiene rules and rational waste management, the association has committed to making its contribution to the cleanliness of toilets and the school environment while paying particular attention to the management of menstrual hygiene in the young girl attending school.

The ideal location and design of the toilet

When planning and building toilets, urinals, water points and handwashing points, two priorities must prevail for children :

The opportunity to learn in a healthy and safe environment ;
The opportunity to put into practice the good hygiene habits learned at school.

Using the toilet, washing hands and collecting water include several small steps and require certain preparations. If the activity is difficult to perform, complex or time-consuming, children may skip some of the necessary steps, creating potential health risks. The facilities must therefore be located close to schools, have sufficient capacity, therefore offer sufficient toilets and sinks in relation to the number of students, be of an appropriate size and easy to use, and provide soap and water for hand washing and anal toilet at all times.

They must stimulate children's learning and development and be age-appropriate. Younger children do not have the same ability to learn complex concepts as older children. It is important to take these different learning modalities into account not only in the development of hygiene education teaching aids, but also in the design of facilities.

Interactive learning and involvement through play encourage children to practice their new habits.

The "Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Education" initiative can be an extension of the educational environment: it offers opportunities for interaction and can be a powerful tool for hygiene education.

Children can be stimulated by their environment in a variety of ways. The categories of development are as follows :

Environmental: Children receive information through sight, smell, hearing and touch and process this information according to their degree of development. The spaces they encounter, including toilets, water, sanitation and hand-washing facilities, offer them a range of positive and negative experiences in terms of colors, smells, shapes and sounds.

Social: The way spaces are organized and used can allow children to isolate themselves or promote contact with others. The toilet, for example, requires both privacy and a common space.

Creative: The possibility of appropriating the space and adapting it to match their needs can stimulate children's creativity. Children can decorate walls and solve functional problems, which promotes creative thinking.

Physiological: the use of the facilities makes it possible to develop the motor skills of young children, for example improving the accuracy of their body movements, aiming for the hole of a latrine. Using these facilities requires gross motor skills (climbing stairs, using a pump) and fine motor skills (opening a tap, using a door handle or a lock).

The morphology and delicacy of the girl, her menstrual health, impose a specificity in the design and construction of their comfort spaces.

The design of toilets for them should provide for the installation of a floor urinal on a waterproofed floor inclined enough towards the siphon to drain urine, and equipped with walls with a waterproof surface (ceramic tiles, for example).
To respect privacy, the urinal must have a low-height door (1500 mm, as in the diagram) equipped with hooks to hang loose clothes if necessary, in order to avoid soiling them on the wet floor.
The width of 700 mm indicated on the plan takes into account the clothes that they usually wear according to cultures and uses concerning modesty.
The depth of 800 mm takes into account the seating position and the desirable free space, while saving the available space as much as possible. It is also assumed that adult female teachers will use these toilets.
The open siphon must be 100 mm wide so that it can be regularly cleaned. It is necessary to ensure that the floor is well inclined in the direction of the siphon.

Water, sanitation and hygiene for schools: A necessity

The need to sanitize toilets and the environment also concerns the development of practical skills, the mobilization and commitment of parents of students, communities and private partners to work together to improve hygiene, water and sanitation conditions in public kindergartens and primary schools. Although there are many possible approaches, depending on cultural differences and environmental and social realities, the "Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Education" initiative in schools must include the following elements :

Safe water supply points, hand washing points and sustainable sanitation facilities;
An integrated training in the practice of good hygiene rules in a school environment beneficial to students and teachers by professionals in this field while relying on participatory pedagogical modalities;
Raising awareness among families and communities in general about the importance of decent and well-stocked toilets.
Thanks to an adapted and effective implementation, the sanitation of toilets and the school environment must allow students to :

To be healthier thanks to the limitation of the proliferation of diseases related to the fecal hazard;
To have better academic results, the uncomfortable student does not follow the lessons, some have to return home to satisfy this physiological need with the corollary of absence from class;
To have a positive influence on hygiene practices in the family home, within their family and their community;
To learn to observe, communicate, cooperate, listen and apply decisions on hygiene conditions and practices for themselves, their friends and their younger siblings, if they are responsible for their hygiene (skills that can be transposed into other aspects of their lives);

To modify their current hygiene practices and to continue these good practices in the future;
To learn about menstrual hygiene physical and emotional changes related to puberty (learn to avoid menstrual odors, discomfort, vaginal and urinary infections. All this will encourage girls to come to school during their period);
In their respective families, regardless of gender, according to age, hygiene-related tasks: cleaning the toilet, fetching and boiling water and caring for sick people.

Recommendations for the design of toilet facilities according to age.

PRIMARY SCHOOL, FIRST LEVELS: 5-7 YEARS

The toilet should be clean, have light colors and have sufficient light and natural ventilation. Hygiene promotion materials can be used for decoration in order to strengthen the link between learning and practice, for example, hunting after one's needs. The toilets should be designed so that a teacher or an older student can stand next to the child to explain how to use the toilets properly or wash their hands. That said, most children are able to perform simple actions or tasks on their own or with limited assistance. Privacy inside the toilet blocks is not really necessary, because children like to observe others and imitate their behavior.

ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, MIDDLE AND ADVANCED LEVELS: 8-11 YEARS OLD

Schools must offer toilets organized in a clear and practical way, which make it easy to make the link between theoretical notions of hygiene and their practical implementation. These toilets must offer integrated solutions that allow the supply of drinking water, hand washing, anal toilet and waste disposal. They must respect privacy, including for children of the same sex.

ADVANCED ELEMENTARY SCHOOL LEVEL: 12-14 YEARS OLD
Schools must ensure that sufficient privacy is respected for boys and girls, including inside the facilities. Those reserved for girls must take into account the needs related to menstrual hygiene.