Qatar Charity continues to implement the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) project in Shorkot located in the Pakistani province Punjab. The WASH project comes as part of Qatar Charity's partnership with UNICEF and is expected to benefit more than 44,000 households in 98 villages, including people with special needs. At a joint meeting of Qatar Charity and UNICEF, the latter expressed satisfaction with the progress of the project. Local representatives also expressed their confidence in the quality of the project.

The project, in general, aims to contribute to improving the health and well-being of the rural population by changing their culture regarding sanitation, hygiene and safe drinking water. Out of about 14,258 households, who did not have toilets in their homes at the launching of the project, 8,564 households have so far managed to build lavatories in their homes, taking the completion rate of the project to 60 per cent.

Qatar Charity also installed a 50,000-gallon water plant that contributed to the clean drinking water supply for 200 houses, benefiting 1,400 people in Jhang, in addition to building seven toilets for people with special needs, and installing basins in 18 public schools to promote the culture of washing hands with water and soap among students.

Because of Qatar Charity's awareness campaign within the framework of the project, 59,360 people have access to primary and basic hygiene and hand-washing facilities in their homes, while 261,000 became able to change their behaviour and increase their knowledge of hygiene.

As part of its work in schools, Qatar Charity has established 340 school clubs and 1,117 teachers have been trained to improve school health and hygiene condition. More than 650 people from the local community were trained to help target communities change their behaviour regarding hygiene.

UNICEF held a workshop to review the progress made on the WASH project and discuss its challenges. A team from Qatar Charity's offices in Islamabad and Shorkot and the government and society representatives attended the workshop.

Prakash Raj Lamsal, UNICEF Water, Sanitation and Hygiene specialist, expressed his satisfaction with the progress made so far on the project. Qatar Charity and UNICEF are working as a single team to achieve the same goals, Lamsal noted.

The director of Qatar Charity's office in Pakistan Ameen Abdul Rahman thanked UNICEF for organizing the workshop. "We are working together for the betterment of human life," the director added.

Source: QNA

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Binu Cherian

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