Background and Aims: Access to safe and sufficient drinking Water, Sanitation, and good Hygiene (WASH) facilities in schools play a crucial role in preventing students from numerous Neglected Tropical Diseases, improving the learning environment in schools, and creating resilient communities living in a healthy environment. This study aims to explore the impact of combining WASH facilities on students' health status, school attendance, and educational achievements.Methods: Four schools, two with improved and two without improved WASH facilities, were selected purposively from Dhanusha and Chitwan districts of Nepal. A total of 24 participants, 16 students, and eight teachers were also purposively selected based on the Theory of Data Saturation. The participants were interviewed face‐to‐face using study guidelines; Key Informants Interview for teachers and In‐depth Interview for students. The data were audio recorded and analyzed thematically using Dedoose 9.0.17 qualitative data management and analysis software.Results: School WASH facilities have a significant impact on students' health and well‐being. Poor school‐WASH facilities hindered students' school attendance, particularly for menstruating girls. School without separate toilets for girls, including menstruation hygiene facilities, lack of water and soap, sanitary pad, and secure toilet's door often have higher rates of absenteeism among girls. Poor teacher and students' relationships, students' low interest in education, household chores, and participation in social customs also contribute to students' absence from school and low educational performance. It is important to note that inadequate WASH facilities affect not only students, but also teachers in the same school.Conclusion: The lack of safe and sufficient drinking water, unimproved sanitation, and poor hygiene facilities were seen by students and teachers as reducing their health and well‐being, school attendance, and academic performance. Thus, schools need prioritize and promote the provision of improved WASH facilities for the betterment of students' health, attendance, and educational proficiency.

Background: Access to drinking Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) at schools are the basic determinants of a child’s right to healthy and quality education. In Nepal, most of the schools had limited WASH facilities, including separate sanitation facilities for girls. The limited WASH facilities, unsafe drinking water, poor sanitation, and hygiene practices result in irresponsible behaviors that directly impede on students’ health. This study examines the association between WASH services and health status of basic level students’, ranging sixth to eighth grades. In Nepal, basic level education consists up to eighth standards from grade 1. Methods: The study applies causal-comparative research design within 2 groups; 1 having improved WASH and another without improved WASH services at the schools in Dhanusha and Chitwan districts of Nepal. Each group consists 2 schools, so altogether 4 schools were included in this study. Total 768, equal 384 respondents were selected from each improved and without improved WASH facilities. The study was conducted in between January and March 2021 at a single-phase time. The sample size was calculated using the standard statistical formula for the infinite population. The study applied quantitative research method, including 3 sorts of analysis; univariate, bivariate, and the multivariate. The univariate was applied to analyze the frequency and percentages of the respondents. Bivariate analysis was made applying chi² test in order to show the association between 2 variables, whereas the multivariate logistic regression was performed through multilevel modeling to show the effects of school WASH facilities on students’ health status. Results: Out of 768 students’, 384 (50%) were from improved and 384 (50%) were from unimproved WASH facilities at schools. More than two third (64%) of respondents from the unimproved and higher than two fifth (41%) from the improved schools got sickness ( P <.001). Further, three fifth (59%) of respondents aged 15 to 19 and higher than half (51%) of respondents ages of 10 to 14 years got sickness ( P <.05). Most (57%) of the female respondents had sickness compared to males (47%), ( P <.05). More than two-thirds (67%) of respondents from Dalit and nearly two-thirds (62%) of respondents from Brahmin/Chhetri-Terai more often found being sick in unimproved schools compared to other castes (55%), Janajati (43%), and Brahmin/Chhetri-Hill (39%) ( P <.001). The school WASH services has significant effect (cOR = 0.388, CI; 290-0.519, P <.001) on students health status, even adjusting other socio-covariates (aOR = .442, CI; 0.302-0.646, P <.001). The female respondents were more likely to fall sick (aOR = 678, CI; 0.502-0.915, P <.01) compared to the male respondents keeping all other variables constant in the model. Conclusion: The study recommends to extend WASH awareness program to school families, particularly to the students as there is an evident need to increase preventive as well as the therapeutic efficacy of the potential infections.

Street children refer to the children who have not reached adulthood, for whom the street has become their habitual abode and/or a source of livelihood. The reasons for their connection to the street will vary from nation to nation, city to city, and from person to person. This research envisaged to explore the causes of being street children and assess their health status of two study areas, Kathmandu and Birjung, Nepal. The research followed descriptive, exploratory and applied 'QUAN-qual', quantitative dominant mixed methods. The two: semi-structured questionnaire with 150 participants for quantitative data and Key-in-depth interviews (KIIs) with 18 participants for qualitative data were employed in this research. The research areas were purposively selected as per the researcher's pre-observation and respondents on the basis of convenience sampling. The quantitative data were analyzed using the Statical Package for the Social Science (SPSS) software version 20.0 and qualitative data were thematically analyzed using content analysis. The findings of the study depicted that the dominant causes to be street children are family-based causes. Economic, social, and other causes are second, third, and fourth respectively in the study area. Additionally, gender and alcohol consumed behavior was found significant where education level and age had no significance to determinants of the health status of street children. The overall implication of the study signifies that the attention has been shifted from treating the biological to encouraging street children to gain positive necessary health skills that are based on self-care and self-management behaviors including knowledge, beliefs, attitude, motivation, and behaviors.

Nepal has a high Maternal Mortality Rates (MMR) in the South Asian region, partly due to the poor utilization of maternal and child healthcare services. The study aims to explore the influencing factors of maternal and child healthcare services among Nepalese women. Eighteen women, who had seven-days-old-children and those recently accessed maternal and child healthcare practices, were purposively selected. The face-to-face, In-depth-Interview (IDI) was applied to collect the information. The data were thematically analyzed, where Socio-Ecological Model (SEM) was applied as a theoretical framework. The study showed that the factors such as the knowledge of women, perception, and decision-making-autonomy at individual levels influenced maternal and child healthcare-seeking behaviors. Likewise, mothers-in-law and the role of husbands at intrapersonal levels, employment at institutional levels, peers and role of neighbors at community levels, and safe motherhood program at policy levels were significant factors for the utilization of maternal and child healthcare-seeking-behaviors. The negligence of women concerning pregnancy, inadequate health facilities, lack of specialist health workers with advanced equipment, and cultural taboos and beliefs were observed as score barriers for utilization of maternal and child health-seeking behaviors. The research strongly recommends that all women be aware of maternal and child healthcare and health-seeking behaviors at their initial ages.

The review was started aiming to assess the effect of school-based Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) facilities on students’ health status, school regularity, and educational achievement. Two major academic and scientific research journals as Springer and PubMed have been selected, where WASH is the search engines, separately. There were 8,443 relevant publications found, with Springer having6, 888 and PubMed having 1,555. Among these publications, author synthesized 17 with abstracts and full articles, including references for this study. The findings of this study indicates that intervention of school WASH facilities have an effect on students’ health status, regularity in school attendance, and educational achievement. It protects students from various infectious diseases caused by poor WASH access; however, ways of handling it is equally important. The intervention in WASH facilities at school improves students’ health, school regularity, and educational achievements. Thus, the study strongly suggests interventions in school-based WASH facilities to make students healthier, more regular, and better academic performer.