School and childhood should go hand in hand. However, many children in the developing world are too busy making backbreaking trips to fetch water or are too sick to attend school. In a world where hundreds of millions of children live without safe water or toilets at home, over 443 million school days are lost each year to illness from water-related diseases. The situation is no better at school more than one third of institutions have no water points or toilets on site (UNICEF 2010). To ensure that schools provide a healthy and conducive learning environment for children, they must be equipped with safe drinking water, handwashing facilities, as well as safe, private and friendly-to-use sanitation facilities. Water, sanitation and good hygiene practices in schools significantly reduces hygiene related diseases, increases student attendance particularly for girls, and improves learning outcomes.

Through this project, WaterAid, with the help of the TATA Capital, provided government schools and thereby approximately 3635 school children studying in schools, with access to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation. The aim is to ensure that children have access to basic facilities such as safe drinking water, functional school toilets, and education on good hygiene practices (including menstrual hygiene management). Teachers and students were trained to sustainably operate and manage these facilities will continue long after the project has ended. The project was done in two phases.

The project benefitted the most marginalised school children in Hyderabad schools. Their families and communities also indirectly benefit from the project because the students would carry forward the process of hygiene behavior change within their individual households.

The following were some of the achievements :

• Ensured functional clean and safe drinking water access to children in all schools
• Reach 3635 school children with water, sanitation and hygiene education
• Train 110 Teachers on Hygiene Education
• Create school water, sanitation and hygiene clubs and educate a student water, sanitation and hygiene brigade in 7 Schools.
• Train 105 students of water, sanitation and hygiene clubs on hygiene education