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Solutions

St Mary's College

Salty Squeeze How to Use: 1. Take one rock out of the salt water and cover it in salt from the salt bucket, then rub between hands for 30 seconds. 2. Place rock back in salt water. 3. Then squeeze the bottle until a small amount of the water comes out into the basin. 4. Rinse hands then pull plug. 5. To dry hands rub on the dry wooden post for 30 seconds, then wave them around to get rid of any left over moisture. This is our hand washing facility, a milk bottle, which is easily found and recyclable, is used like a foot pump to dispense water to wash your hands without you having to touch anything with your dirty hands. The milk bottle holds enough soap and water for 1 to 2 washes. The system comes with a few bottles that can just be filled from a small tank/tap. The soap is kept in the screw on lid which is put on all the bottles this means the water runs past it on the way to your hands meaning you don't have to touch a dirty bar of soap so you are less likely to catch diseases. The basin collects the dirty water which at the end of a lunchtime can be sent to be filtered or used to water the plants. Click here to see the Yukky Germs PowerPoint. By Adelaide, Aimee, Neda and Caitlin John Cocks, engineer comments... Effectiveness - It's not clear how the water is retained in the milk bottle. As far as the water goes, the system will wash the hands. However it is complicated - why not have a bucket beside it to tip into? Using salt is an innovative idea for disinfection. Excellent thinking. Durability - The materials are durable but the tape and it's exposure to water will not last long. User-friendliness - Complicated. The how to use description is consise and clear however would it be simpler to have a milk bottle beside the container and empty a little but in? Prof Norris comments... Communication - If the PNG kids knew what germs and the Salty Squeeze was then they would understand the slide show. Also you have to remember There is no electricity in these schools. If you didn't know these were germs you will think that the kids have funny green stuff in their rivers. However the PowerPoint is really attractive. You have made a big effort to find great photos. Germs and Drops The aim of this game is to teach the children of Papua New Guinea which hygiene practices are good and which are bad.(Good = go up, Bad = go down) No. of players 2-4 What you need: 1 die counter or marker for each player Flat surface Instructions: Each person takes turns to roll the die and the person with the highest roll starts To move along the playing board you have to roll the die and move the number of squares that appears (on the die) If you land on a square with writing you must read what it says and follow the instructions (to go up or down) To go up, follow the blue trail of water droplets from your square and stop on the square it leads you to. To go down, follow the trail of green germs from your square and stop on the square it leads you to. The first person to reach the finish square wins! By Saralee, Kayla and Ella We believe the solution to the hand-washing problem is public awareness. We think that if the people of the Eastern Highlands and the rest of PNG realize how important it is to wash their hands they will begin to incorporate hand washing in their daily routines. We will try making people aware by putting up posters around the place and teaching them the consequences when they don't wash their hands. The posters will include when people should wash their hands (e.g. before meals, after the toilet etc.) and how they should wash their hands too. We will also inform them about the things that will happen when they don't wash their hands and the illness they could contract. INSTRUCTIONS FOR OPERATING THE DEVICE Our design must be connected to a reasonably low or medium height tree branch so that everyone is able to use it. To operate our design all you have to do is pull the piece of wood in the bucket so that the water runs out of the hole and fills to the top of the cup underneath then pull the plug out from the bottom of the cup and wash your hands. We have designed it so that it does not get contaminated quickly, the excess water falls into the ground underneath the tree so no water is wasted, so that you get the right amount of water to wash your hands with and to make it an easy way for everyone to keep clean and wash their hands. To help make the younger generations aware we will teach them songs about hygiene and hand washing as children enjoy music and will remember better. We will help them learn how to wash their hands properly using the hand-washing devices that have been created (like the Tippy-Tap). We believe that if people know how important hand washing is for their health we can reduce the amount of sick people in PNG and teach the younger people a lesson that will be passed on from generation to generation By Saralee Prof Norris comments... Communication - This assumes that people know what germs are. It would be a good game as part of a broader sanitation education package. I like the idea of following the water up and the germs going down. That is cool. it's also good you actually physically made the game.                           John Cocks, engineer comments... Effectiveness - Without a description of how it operates and maybe a diagram to assist we are not able to comment on effectiveness. Durability - Some plastics deteriorate in sunshine. Without having more detail we cant comment on the durability of the system - that is the materials and how the connections fit together and will last. User-friendliness - It could be user friendly but it is hard to tell. Note - the description was added after the engineer had commented. Click here for the Clean Hands Healthy Body PowerPoint by Stephanie, Kate and Annabel. Click here for the prototype design   John Cocks, engineer comments... Effectiveness - Friom what is seen in the photo an effective device has been built. A description about how it functions is important to explain why it has been built this way and how it works. Durability - Some plastices deteriorate in sunshine. Without having more detail we can't comment on the durability of the system - that is the materials and how the connections fit together and will last. Tape breaks down easily. User-friendliness - It coud be user friendly by appearance but we don't know because of the lack of description and maybe some user comments. John la Roche comments on the prototype design added after John Cocks had given feedback... Stephanie, Kate and Annabel,  you have obviously put a lot of thought into your design.  However I think that if you build it there would be a number of problems. From a hygiene point of view having to pull out the plug with dirty hands would contaminate it.  Unless it is also thoroughly washed in the limited water supply available, the user will re-contaminate her/his hands when they put the plug back. I can see why you have thought of a divider to limit the quantity of water - a very good idea for a water short place like many villages and schools in PNG.   However I suggest it would be difficult to seal the slider without fairly sophisticated rubber seals that would be subject to wear and deterioration.  If you did not have good seals and the slider leaked, you would loose  the precious water. Your idea of having soap inside the tube would help in washing very dirty hands, but I suspect the soap might become soft and block the tube.  Normally it would be a good idea to use a cleanser on the hands first, and then wash off with water.  Having the soap already in the tube would not allow a final rinse.  A cleanser often used by pioneers was dry wood  ashes (cold) from the fire  to rub on their hands before washing.  Wood ashes are a very effective cleanser.   Most houses in PNG have no electricity and they do their cooking with wood fires so there would be no problem to get wood ashes. You have some very good thoughts on how to deal with a difficult problem, but I feel your design calls for some more refinement before it could work effectively. Prof Norris comments... Communication - I don't think you have quite worked out who your audience is. Mollenberg bread with lettuce & ham might make the people in PNG wonder. This is a clear message for New Zealanders but not people from PNG. Also, from the photo, the little boy doens't look too ill to me. The toilet is a Western one. Some of the photos are really cute but over all they are not relevant to PNG.