By Adama Kone, Teacher Project Manager

In order to succeed in school, you need to be in the classroom. And in order to be in the classroom, you need to be healthy. That’s where Mali Rising’s regular handwashing trainings come in — helping students stay healthy and in school learning.

From October through February, students in rural schools in Mali often struggle with their health because of many factors. When the rainfall stops in late September, mosquitoes multiply in standing water next to houses. These mosquitos bring malaria. In addition to that, students often come back to school worn out after a summer of hard work in fields with their parents .

On top of these problems, other health issues affect students’ attendance like diarrhea, stomachache, and other issues.

To help schools with some of these health problems, Mali Rising Foundation provides hand washing trainings to our students. This school year, we will host 10 trainings — reaching approximately 1,500 students! The hand washing trainings will help students understand how to wash their hands properly and when they need to be sure to wash their hands.

The Little Heroes Academy II Middle School of Tanima is one of the schools where Mali Rising recently hosted a hand washing training. The training brought together 247 middle school students to learn the basics of good hand hygiene. In talking with the students before the training, we found that many students did not know what germs are or know people get sick as a result of dirty hands

Aminata, Pascal, Amadou and Aicha are great students in the Little Heroes Academy II Middle School. They all volunteered to show their classmates how to wash hands with soap properly. To do so, they first put glitter on their hands, representing germs. This demonstration of washing hands with soap to scrub off the glitter made the students understand clearly that they cannot actually see germs on their hands and can accidently eat them then get sick. It was so much harder to actually get your hands clean than the students thought!

Amadou (in the blue shirt) was the craziest volunteer who made everyone laugh during the training. He made the crowd crack up when he said that he felt like he had poop on his hands with the glitter. Amadou was very determined to stress the instructions and show how to wash hands to his classmates. All the students agreed that they would need to comply with the hands washing instructions in order to stay healthy and study hard in school. At the end of the training, Pascal Samaké (the taller boy in the middle of the photo) said he was very grateful to the donors of Mali Rising Foundation for making the training possible in their school.

The principal from Little Heroes Academy II Middle School of Tanima, Mr. Abdoulaye Sagara thanked Mali Rising Foundation for the training. Mr. Sagara thinks will help students understand how important washing their hands is, no matter where they are or what they do.