Philippine High School Launches International Sanitation Program

MAKATI, Philippines – Students from a high school in the Philippines have helped launch a sanitation program meant to help them stay healthy and in school.

A pilot school for new sanitation initiatives, the Makati Science High School received sanitation kits for all of its students and a refilling center. The program was funded by a group of organizations led by CityNet, a network of Asia-Pacific municipalities that manages human settlement. The group also included the Philippines division of Unilever, the soap manufacturer.

"It is very important to address complicated environmental problems,” said the CityNet president, Hiroshi Nakada, during the launching of the City of Makati Sanitation Program for Schools. Nakada, the mayor of Yokohama in Japan, and Jejomar Cabauatan Binay, the mayor of Makati, cut a ceremonial ribbon on the Makati Science High School Sanitation Station Refilling Center on Nov 14, 2007. Fifty members of CityNet attended the ceremony, as did students and faculty.

According to Mayor Nakada, Mayor Binay was very aggressive in proposing that the international program be piloted in Makati. And he chose Makati Science for the program.

"It is really an honor that Makati Science was chosen to pilot this very important program," said Armand Joseph Aquino, a Makati Science student. "I agree that sanitation is an underlying problem in education. So, this project is really important to us, as students."

Makati Science students and teachers attended a series of hygiene and sanitation workshops in October. This included seminars on the importance of proper hand-washing techniques. Equipped with refilling hand sanitizer kiosks, the center promotes sustainable sanitation and solid waste management programs. Students refill their sanitation kits by exchanging recyclable materials, such as newspapers and polyethylene bottles.

Mildred Castillo, an official with the Makati Department of Environmental Services, said that improper hygiene and sanitation increases absenteeism and decreases cognitive development among students. She said the program begun in Makati will be duplicated worldwide.

(The reporter is a student of Makati Science High School.)