Wanakha Central School is located in a remote area at high elevation, with many students having to walk long distances to school. Cleanliness was a persistent issue, especially among younger students. As part of a Design for Change initiative, senior students adopted younger students to help keep them clean through regular checks, haircuts, and lunch together. Funds were raised and supplies purchased. The program was a success, with students sharing their experience with other schools. Ongoing plans include continued monitoring, raising more funds for supplies, and occasional baths for younger students.

1. Wanakha Central School, 2015
“The Evolution”

2. Wanakha is located just above the Thimphu - Haa
highway. The School has been recently upgraded to a
Central School.There are 402 children, 21 teachers and
classes starting from Pre-primary till tenth grade

3. Orientation and dissemination
of information on “Design For
Change”

4. Feel
FWanakha is a beautiful and a very cold place located
at 2720 meters above the sea level. The parents of
the students are mostly farmers. They rear lots of
cattle for milk and dairy products.Because of the
cold climatic condition the parents move with their
cattle to a warmer place every year leaving their
children either with the grand parents or the older
siblings. Most of the students also have to walk a
minimum of 45 minutes to reach school every day,
due to which cleanliness has become a persistent
issue in the school. Another issue constantly
reminded by the school is the lice on the smaller
children’s head. There were also many other
problems that affected us like not having mirrors in
the toilets, need for a school canteen, difficulty in

5. Sending leave
application, waste
problems and many
more. From all the
problems we felt that
the cleanliness in the
junior students was the
most persisting
problem. There fore we
chose “cleanliness in
the junior students” as
our DFC challenge.

6. School Captain Namgay Wangchuk and a group of
senior students suggested that every senior
student adopt a child from the junior classes and
help them to stay clean through constant
checking and even helping them in the school
during the recess time.All the children agreed to
their suggestion and even came up with the idea
to raise fund through food stalls and donations to
buy hair cutting scissors and clippers. A core
group of 15 members were formed to monitor the
activities.
Imagine

8. Do
Adopted a brother/sister from the lower
classes.
Raised funds to buy scissors,hair clippers,
nail clippers and soaps for hand washing
purposes.
Checking of uniform, nails, shirts, socks and
shoes during the morning assembly.
Hair cutting was done weekly (ongoing
process)
Senior students takes lunch together with
their junior students from the School.( The
Principal and the teachers were generous
enough to participate in raising funds and
providing soaps for washing.)

11. Three children from the core group went to share
their success story in two different nearby
schools. They also shared information on “Design
For Change” and encouraged the two schools to join
in the near future. Students in the higher grades
were more interested and asked the presenters
numerous questions and doubts. Some of the
students even shared their part of problems
related to cleanliness and suggested some tips on
how to keep smaller students clean like washing
their uniforms on weekends.
share

13. • Continue with the same activities.
• Raise more funds to buy socks and shoe
polish for underprivileged children.
• Frequent monitoring during the morning
assembly.
• Give bath to the junior children once in a
month with the help from the school cooks.
• Help with their home works during study
time.