CASE STUDY
Schoolchildren in Kenya stop drinking contaminated water
VILLAGE HOPECORE INTERNATIONAL, KENYA
The Social Enterprise
How do you improve the health outcomes of children in rural Kenya? Village HopeCore International is an NGO in Chogoria, Kenya that provides preventive health programs at schools in rural areas. Community health workers and nurses meet with women and children, distribute mosquito nets and malaria pills, and install clean water tanks.
The Challenge
It’s hot, dry, and dusty. When busy students take a break from their classes, they run to drink unclean water from hand washing tanks and old taps used to clean classrooms. Even though Village HopeCore installed clean water tanks and educated students in 180 schools about the risk of disease, 9 of 10 of students still continued drinking from the old taps. Health workers were frustrated, asking: “Why won’t these kids drink clean water?”
The Research
The students themselves revealed the answers. Appleseed trained Village HopeCore’s community health workers over a 6 week period, and asked them to hide, observe, and speak with students. By putting assumptions aside, we started to understand their barriers and motivators.
