Rotary Area of Focus March: Providing clean water, sanitation and hygiene
Operation Toilets Australia
Access to clean water and sanitation is essential for people to be able to lead a healthy and productive life. Rotary aims to address this area of focus through a range of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) projects across the world. As outlined in a previous bulletin article, a significant issue impacting on sanitation and hygiene is the provision of adequate toilet facilities, with the United Nations reporting that more than 4.5 billion people are living without a safe toilet.
In working to address this situation, the Rotary Club of Box Hill Central facilitates the Operation Toilets Australia program. The Mission of Operation Toilets Australia is to build toilets and deliver hygiene education programs in schools in developing countries, with a special aim of improving education opportunities for adolescent girls who are often extremely disadvantaged in the school environment in these countries.
The concept for Operation Toilets Australia came after Box Hill Central Rotarian Mark Balla, visited India some years ago and discovered that many girls there didn't complete secondary education because they stop attending school when they reach puberty as they didn’t have adequate toilet facilities to deal with their menstruation while at school.
The Club worked in partnership with the We Can't Wait Foundation and the Rotary Club of Nasik Road in India, to build toilets in schools in India, with the first project completed in April 2015. Since that time over 90 schools and thousands of students in numerous countries have directly benefitted from the program. 
Operation Toilets Australia partners with Rotary Clubs and in-country not-for-profit organisations to build toilets of solid construction with sustainable sanitation connections. A key element of any Operation Toilets Australia project is a hygiene education – WASH - program developed by UNICEF. Students are taught to wash their hands after visiting the toilet or before eating and local communities are also encouraged to become involved. The final part of any Operation Toilet Australia project is for a school to commit to an ongoing maintenance program to ensure that their toilets are kept in good working order.
We will welcome Mark Balla to the Rotary Club of Moe on Monday night and look forward to hearing more about Operation Toilets Australia.
Diane Wilkinson
Chair, International & Foundation Committee