Equal Education’s members in Tembisa, a township community 20 minutes outside of Pretoria, decided that they deserved better toilets in their schools. They felt that the toilets were hurting their education, health, dignity and safety and security. They wanted things to change.

But, before they could ask for change, they decided that they needed to understand the problem better. As research, they conducted a survey of their toilets. They went and counted the number of taps and toilets in their schools and counted how many were working. They learned that in over half their schools, more than 100 boys or girl shared a single working toilet. Many of their taps weren’t working and there was no toilet paper or soap in their toilet blocks.

They wrote to the Gauteng Education Department to ask for more toilets and better sanitation in their schools. When the Gauteng Education Department ignored them, they went to the media and got journalists to write about their story. Over six months, they continued to meet and pressure the Gauteng Education Department until they achieved results.

Thanks to their effort, five schools in Tembisa have received two new pre-fabricated toilet blocks each. Contractors visited other schools to fix taps, toilets bowls and basins. In total, they have helped to improve the sanitation conditions for 15,000 students in This was a big victory and shows what students can achieve when they work together for change. Still, more work remains. To learn more, visit: Equal Education Sanitation Campaign.

If you would like to improve the sanitation in your schools, here are some actions you can take:

Sanitation is critical to our education, health, safety and security as well as our dignity. All students deserve good sanitation. This means enough working toilets, taps and sanitary bins for the learners in the school. Students deserve water and clean toilets every day. Unfortunately, many schools do not provide these facilities for students. If your school’s sanitation facilities – toilets and taps – are not sufficient, consider taking action by doing the following:

• Conduct a survey of your toilet facilities. Count how many toilets are in your school and then count how many toilets are working. Count how many taps there are and count how many are working.

• Report your survey to Equal Education, your principal or your provincial department of education. If you would like to report your survey to Equal Education, you can do this by posting on our facebook page, writing to us at info@equaleducation.org.za, or calling us at 021 387 0022. When you call or write us, report the following:

o The name of your school
o The province and area where your school is located
o The total number of students in your school
o The total number of toilets in your school as well as the total number of toilets that are broken or not working
o The total number of taps in your school as well as the total number of taps that are broken or not working
o Describe the conditions of your toilets – for example, if they are smelly, dirty etc.
o Describe how you feel about using your toilets and some of the challenges you are experiencing

• Form a sanitation club that will work with students, parents and teachers to address any challenges in your school. For example, this sanitation club can be responsible for regularly checking if there are problems in the toilets and reporting them to the principal. If students are using the toilets as a place for gambling or other inappropriate activities, this club can talk to them and address this problem.

For more ideas, consider visiting: Equal Education Sanitation Campaign.