A Club member, Rotarian Mark Balla, visited India some years ago and discovered that many girls there don't complete secondary education because they stop attending school when they reach puberty. Why?  Because many schools don't have adequate toilet facilities and so the girls don't have the facilities or privacy to deal with their menstruation at school.  Our Club, working in partnership with the We Can't Wait Foundation and the Rotary Club of Nasik Road in India, started building toilets in schools in India and our Club has now been joined by other Melbourne Rotary Clubs who are bringing additional funding, capability and enthusiasm to the project. 

Site Visits

Our first project was completed in April 2015 and over 250 children, Rotarians and other dignitaries were present for the inauguration of our first Operation Toilets project at the New English School in Nashik. The location is a few klms outside Nashik with most of the children living in nearby slums which have no water or toilets.​

The Finger

Club members are always warmly welcomed by the school children and school staff.  In India holding up the little finger is a signal that the person wants to use the toilet - here we see the whole group using the gesture in celebration of getting toilets at the school for the first time. 

New Toilets

Squat toilets are the standard in Indian society so they are the most culturally appropriate installation for schools. The picture above shows one of the girls' toilets complete with sanitary disposal bin. 
Disposal of waste varies depending on many factors including sewer location, water table height and soil permeability.