A Sanitation Champion leads change in his school and community
12-year-old Abubakar is inspiring his friends and family to practice good hygiene and sanitation.
Birnin Kudu, Northwest Nigeria, 28 September 2025 – Twelve-year-old Abubakar Abdullahi has clear ideas about how he wants to help his community when he grows up. “I want to become a soldier to help my community fight insecurity, especially kidnapping,” he lets you in.
Given his age, Abubakar is years away from realizing his dreams of service to his community as he aspires to do if he becomes a soldier. However, by sharing information and knowledge on sanitation and hygiene skills he has acquired at school as a member of the Environmental Health Club (EHC) with his community, Abubakar is already living up his dream of service to community.
As a member of the Environmental Health Club (EHC) of Kangire Primary School, Abubakkar has gained vital knowledge and practical skills on sanitation and hygiene.
Now, Abubakar understands how simple practices like handwashing with soap, proper waste disposal, and using clean water can protect children like him from diseases such as diarrhoea and cholera.
“Before I joined the club, I wasn’t aware of how important it is to wash my hands with soap or keeping the school clean. Now, I don’t only practice what I learn at the Environmental Health Club, I also share the information with my father, mother and eleven siblings at home, including people in my neighbourhood”.
At school, Abubakar is also a sanitation and hygiene champion. He talks to students about the imperative of maintaining personal hygiene and keeping one’s environment clean. His sanitation hygiene promotion activities have been made easier with the installation of a solar powered borehole at his school which provides clean water daily.
Before the solar-powered borehole was installed, Zangire Primary School, which has over 2000 students, had only one hand pump borehole which not only yielded water poorly, but was not connected directly to the school’s toilets.
“We had to fetch and carry water to the toilets anytime we needed to make use of the toilet,” Abubakar volunteers. “That led to loss of learning time as well as made life difficult.”
But all that is in the past now.
With the installation of the solar powered borehole at Zangire Primary School, not only is water easily available for the students to use, but it has been reticulated to the toilets.
“Now that we have the solar powered borehole installed, we simply turn the taps on anytime we need to wash our hands or after visiting the toilet. It’s easy and fun!”
At home, Abubakar takes an active role in sensitizing and sharing information and encouraging his family and community to adopt healthy habits.
Ibrahim Haruna, his teacher corroborates: “Abubakar sets a notable example. He is a highly active member of the EHC, and his peers listen to him because he understands the importance of sanitation and hygiene and speaks passionately to them about it.”
While improving sanitation and hygiene practices in schools and homes is key to reducing preventable illnesses among children, Abubakar’s story epitomizes how empowering children with knowledge and skills can ignite positive changes within families and communities.
Through the Education and Youth Empowerment Programme, UNICEF and the European Union are partnering to provide clean water sources and support students in schools across Nigeria’s Northwest states of Jigawa, Kano and Sokoto to acquire knowledge and skills on sanitation and hygiene, of course, practice what they learn!
And students like Abubakar are also using that information to become change agents in their schools and communities.
