News
On the second annual Global Handwashing Day: Spread the word and not the germs
9 October, 2009
NEW YORK, USA, 9 October 2009 – Next Thursday, 15 October, marks the second annual Global Handwashing Day, which millions of children and adults will celebrate with special activities in over 80 countries.
Handwashing with soap and water is one of the most affordable and effective interventions to prevent needless deaths of children under the age of five. It helps reduces diarrhoea-related deaths by more than 40 per cent and cases of acute respiratory disease by about 25 per cent.
The promotion of handwashing with soap is also a key strategy for controlling the spread of the H1N1 virus – another major focus of the planned events in many countries on 15 October.
‘Clean hands save lives’
Meanwhile, the popular Australian children’s entertainers, The Wiggles, have once again partnered with UNICEF to raise awareness about the importance of handwashing with soap.
“Teaching children to wash their hands with soap and water from an early age helps instil this behaviour for life,” says Murray the Red Wiggle. “Handwashing with soap positively impacts children, families, communities and nations by reducing disease and increasing productivity."
And children themselves play a central role in spreading the word instead of the germs. Under the slogan 'Clean hands save lives,' Global Handwashing Day 2009 will honour schoolchildren as effective communicators and agents of change, who learn good hygiene practices at school and take them back into their homes and communities.
For children, this direct involvement in hygiene promotion instils a sense of empowerment. Ultimately, it helps make hygienic behaviours, such as handwashing with soap, stick for a lifetime.
