Grace Life Foundation for Social Impacts

The Environmental Health of a Child

A Comparative Environmental Health Initiative Across Communities in Kwara State

The Question

A child in an urban neighbourhood, a child in a commercial town, a child in a peri-urban community, and a child in a rural community may all live in the same state, but do they experience the environment in the same way?

This question forms the basis of The Environmental Health of a Child, an initiative by Grace Life Foundation For Social Impacts examining how children’s environmental experiences differ across urban, peri-urban, commercial and rural communities in Kwara State.

Children do not choose the quality of the air they breathe, the water available to them, the condition of the roads they use, how waste is managed around them, or the environmental conditions of their schools and communities. Yet these conditions may differ significantly depending on where a child lives and learns.

What We Want to Understand
  • What environmental conditions surround children in different communities?
  • Does access to clean water and sanitation differ?
  • Do children experience different levels of exposure to waste, smoke and other forms of pollution?
  • How do drainage, flooding and physical surroundings affect children?
  • Are school environments equally safe and healthy?
  • How do food, roads, transportation and community activities shape children’s daily environmental experiences?
  • What environmental challenges do children themselves identify?
  • What can communities, schools, government and other stakeholders do differently?
The Six-LGA Approach

Six Local Government Areas, six different community contexts.

Asa

Peri-urban and rural environment

Outreach completed

Baruten

Rural environment

Coming soon

Ilorin East

Urban and peri-urban environment

Coming soon

Ilorin South

Urban and peri-urban environment

Coming soon

Ilorin West

Urban environment

Coming soon

Offa

Commercial environment

Coming soon

The purpose is not to label one community as better or worse than another. The purpose is to understand the differences.

Latest from the field

Akopari, Asa LGA

The community has a borehole, but it no longer works. Families now depend on river water, adding alum in an attempt to make it safe for drinking. At the local school, teachers have toilets, but without water, maintaining proper sanitation becomes difficult.

Read the field report

The Final Question

Does where a child grows up determine the environmental experience they have, and what can we do to ensure that every child has a healthy environment in which to grow, learn and thrive?

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