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A water purifier installed in a primary school. Photo: Binh Dinh News

A report by the Ministry of Education and UNICEF has found 30% of schools in Vietnam do not have adequate handwashing facilities.

As part of the COVID-19 response, East Meets West have turned our attention to water, sanitation and hygiene in schools program to ensure access to clean water and hand hygiene for students and teachers to teach healthy hygiene behaviors that will help prevent the spread of disease like COVID-19.

East Meets West recently completed a project to install 12 RO-UV water purification systems and handwashing stations, 10 solid stainless-steel basins (with 5 taps/each), along with 6.000 water bottles to benefit 12 primary schools in three districts, An Nhon, Tuy Phuoc and Tay Son in Binh Dinh province.

Trainings were also provided to raise awareness for students and their parents on WASH matters. The effort, which is said to benefit 6,190 students, reported Binh Dinh News.

The EMWF was founded in 1988 by Vietnamese American Ly Le Hayslip, and is based in Oakland, California, the US. It aims at the improvement of wellbeing and social welfare for disadvantaged communities in Asia through sustainable solutions to clean water, environmental sanitation, personal hygiene, health and education.

Currently, the NGO has been licensed to establish a representative office in Hanoi and a project office in Da Nang. During its 32-year operation in Vietnam, with the help of hundreds of volunteers and many private donations, the foundation is providing quality programs for enhancing the education and health of children, building and renovating vital institutions (schools, hospitals, medical clinics), as well as providing clean and safe water systems for home and agricultural use.

The EMWF has also run a number of small but effective projects on anti-human trafficking, natural disasters aid, and climate change adaptation, among others.

Recently, East Meets West has collaborated with the Vietnam Women's Union to launch the “Women’s Initiative to Leave No One Behind in Preventing the Spread of COVID-19” program which aims to empower women in vulnerable communities in disease prevention efforts in five provinces of Vietnam.

Through Water For Women, East Meets West and VWU provides stainless steel hand washing stations to 173 commune health clinics and Labobo/Happy Tap hand washing devices to 173 commune kindergartens and 980 vulnerable households in the five provinces under the WOBA (Women-led Output based Aid) project.

They also conduct on-site demonstrations of hand washing to raise hygiene awareness and increase practice. Target households and kindergartens also receive additional soap.

Through this collaboration, Thrive is reaching approximately 28,000 people will be in five provinces including health clinics and kindergartens in these project communes./.

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