Learn how students, teachers, and USAID are teaming up for better health in East Java, Indonesia.
A Troublesome Toilet
At Ngalah School in Pasuruan, Indonesia, over 330 girls had to share Dorm D’s solitary bathroom—more like a locker room or public pool facility than anything else.
"It was dirty. Bugs were everywhere,” said 19-year-old Anis Faridah, the girls’ student leader. “There weren’t enough toilets or enough showers."
The bathroom’s unsanitary and uncomfortable conditions exposed the girls to diarrhea and hepatitis A, illnesses that threatened their attendance in class and put their lives at risk.
Honorable Intentions
Over 80 percent of the students at Ngalah come from low-income families.
“These are children of laborers, farmers and factory workers,” said the school's religious and educational leader, Kyai Hajji Soleh Bahruddin. “The fees we collect…are enough to cover the bare minimum.” Still, he said, “we accept everyone.”
At the school, over-crowding in the girls' dormitories created a conundrum, and less-than-hygienic conditions did little to promote cleanliness and sanitation.
