I work for the Yemeni Social Fund for Development and recently I was involved in WASH in schools. I've recently met a young girl 8 years old and have an interesting conversation with her I would like to share it with you. When asked about using the school toilets she answered: "No I don't because they are dirty and have bad smell, so I use the toilet at home before going to school". So you can imagine girls at such age keeping themselves during school time (4-5 hours) without urinating or defecating till they go back home. Her father told me that she complained many times from Urinal System inflammations and the physician prescribed medicines for that symptom. This story is in Sana'a, the capital, the situation in rural areas is much worse.

Though WASH program is new in Yemen, started in 2008 with piloting in 74 schools and impact assessment is due end of 2011, there are some preliminary findings that show success of the pilot program. Preliminary findings are:

•Most of the school toilets that were closed became open and operational

•Absenteeism is reduced

•Soap was a available at schools for hand-washing

•Water became more available than before as a result of recognizing the problem by local stakeholders

•Communities awareness and knowledge about water born diseases have improved

•Communities became more active in the school WASH activities

Within the Yemeni context, these preliminary findings can be considered as a breakthrough encouraging all stakeholders to go into a nationwide program.