We are all vain.

In Kyangwali Refugee Settlement, there are no mirrors. Like it or not, everyone needs a mirror to remind themselves of who they are, and of course refugees are no exception.

When living in very difficult conditions, people lose themselves and forget who they are. Here in Uganda at the Planning for Tomorrow school, the Congolese refugee students(and teachers) love the mirrors that we installed with the hand washing stations. On each of our 4 “hygiene hubs”, we attached 3 mirrors each, meaning the P4T schools now have 12 areas of reflection. When the young learners see their beautiful faces, especially in front of a sink, they’re more hygienic and take better care of their bodies. Daily, they wash their hands and faces with soap for a lot longer than they would without a mirror. Laughing, looking at their teeth, making fun of each other, checking their eyebrows, all while washing their hands. It’s a hygiene trick, and it works:) Reflect on that!

Garbage in, garbage out!

Here at Planning 4 Tomorrow school, there’s garbage everywhere. In Kyangwali Refugee Settlement it’s the norm, and without any garbage cans or sanitation services it’s an unfortunate reality. We as passionate WASH advocates and already accomplished helping with WAter, we wanted to assist P4T school with the “S”, Sanitation.

Paper and garbage were left on the floors of the classrooms, and occasionally dumped on the path to the latrines where students would play on the garbage mound. Teachers would turn a blind eye, or not realize that their dirty rooms and school grounds didn’t have to be a dump.

With no art or color anywhere at the school, we went about purchasing small and large cans for rubbish and painting them with cartoon caricatures. Brooms and dustpans were bought for each class, a large pit was dug with a fence, all garbage on campus removed and