The impact of a school-based safe water and hygiene programme on knowledge and practices of students and their parents: Nyanza Province, western Kenya, 2006. Epidemiology and infection, 136 (1 The impact of a school-based safe water and hygiene programme on knowledge and practices of students and their parents: Nyanza Province, western Kenya, 2006 SUMMARYSafe drinking water and hygiene are essential to reducing Kenya's diarrhoeal disease burden. A school-based safe water and hygiene intervention in Kenya was evaluated to assess its impact on students' knowledge and parents' adoption of safe water and hygiene practices. We surveyed 390 students from nine schools and their parents at baseline and conducted a final evaluation of 363 students and their parents. From baseline to final evaluation, improvement was seen in students' knowledge of correct water treatment procedure (21-65 %, P<0 . 01) and knowing when to wash their hands. At final evaluation, 14 % of parents reported currently treating their water, compared with 6 % at baseline (P<0 . 01). From 2004 to 2005, school absenteeism in the September-November term decreased in nine project schools by 35 % and increased in nine neighbouring comparison schools by 5 %. This novel programme shows promise for reducing school absenteeism and promoting water and hygiene interventions in the home.

Effective inter-organizational collaboration is essential to a community's ability to leverage social and material resources for community problem solving, particularly in the face of complex public health problems. This study used network analysis to document the evolution of collaboration among 21 organizations in the Tar Creek Superfund site in northeastern Oklahoma from 1997 to 2005. The Tar Creek Superfund site was part of a major lead and zinc mining operation and suffers from widespread heavy metal contamination. An organizational network of 21 organizations and a subset of eight tribes were assessed through interviews at three points in time for density and centrality. In addition to collaboration on any topic, we examined information exchange and joint planning related to lead. Density scores were consistently higher in 2005 than in 1997 for both the full and tribal networks. Centralization indices for information exchange showed a marked reduction in the hierarchical structure of information exchange over time. Of particular note is that tribal linkages with local, state and federal agencies increased over time, as did inter-tribal linkages to address the lead issue.