Toilets and Well for Ser Village School, N.W. Romania

Wherever The Need was invited to visit four remote and poorly serviced villages in the Satu-Mare Province of N.W. Romania.

This out of the way and unindustrialized rural area basically exists on subsistence farming, sunflower seed/oil and maize for livestock.

It is struggling for survival.

Horse or donkey and cart are still a very common sight as the main form of transport. No household, school or public building in any of the villages visited has indoor toilets or running drinkable water. Medical clinics are located in the damp and cold back rooms of the primary schools and they too have no running water.

The Government is cumbersome, slow moving and has limited funds, leaving villages such as these in a highly disadvantaged position. The village schools have many classrooms that are damp and overcrowded. Whilst all the schools in the four villages visited are in much the same condition Wherever The Need is focusing its attention on the village of Ser as it is the poorest and most underprivileged of those we visited. There are 73 boys and girls in the Ser school. They and the seven staff all use the five very basic outdoor pit latrines. In the summer the stench is rank and using the facilities in the wet or sub zero temperatures of winter is a gruelling experience.

To help alleviate the harshness of the life in Ser Wherever The Need will be working closely with the Director of the four village schools. The management team will ensure that the project uses local labour and materials to install a well, indoor toilets and washing facilities. We will also build a drain to divert the run off water that is causing the harmful damp within the school building.

The total cost is estimated to be £2,500. The improvement of the facilities and provision of running, drinkable water will greatly enhance the quality of life in Ser school.

The children and staff deserve this small luxury that we take so much for granted. Furthermore, by improving the school facilities the community will gain a functional ‘village hall’ for communal purposes in the evenings and out of school hours. Romanian rural communities are strong, despite the wide scale search for employment, and still have a balanced population of young and old, and by this relatively simple and inexpensive act of improving school facilities, traditional rural life remains a valuable option.