Global Hands-washing Day

Global Hands-washing Day

at D. J. High School, Oshikhandas, Gilgit

Darvesh Karim, Faculty, PDCN Gilgit

October 15 last year was a significant day for the students and teachers of D.J. High School Oshikhandas as on that day we celebrated Global Hands-washing Day for the first time in the school history. To celebrate this day we had set the following objectives:

1.      Protect children from diarrhea and acute respiratory system.

2.      Washing hands with soap and vaccination is a children’s right.

3.      Reduce children’s death rate in the world.

4.      Develop healthy habits in children and create awareness in the society about health and hygiene.

5.      Foster and support a global and local culture of hands-washing in each country.

6.      Raise awareness about the benefits of hands-washing with soap.

It was significant and unique in the scope that the guiding vision of Global Hands-washing Day was to promote a local and global culture of hands-washing with soap. Although people around the world generally and in the local context of Gilgit-Baltistan particularly wash their hands with water only, very few wash their hands with soap habitually and regularly at the critical moments (for example, after using the toilet, while cleaning a child, and before handling food).

The research insights emanating from various parts of the world suggest that the hands-washing with soap is amongst the most effective and inexpensive ways to prevent diarrheal diseases and pneumonia, which together are responsible for the majority of child deaths. It has been regularly propagated through media that every year, more than 3.5 million children do not live to celebrate their fifth birthday because of diarrhea and pneumonia. Yet, despite its lifesaving potential, hands-washing with soap is seldom practiced and not always easy to promote.

We took the Global Hands-washing Day as a challenge, which was to transform hands-washing with soap from a good idea into a regular behavior and practice performed in homes, schools, and communities in the area. To tackle this challenge we considered the need to increase students’ awareness and their active involvement in practicing hands-washing with soap, as the first step to transform children’s behavior.  The main objective of celebrating the Day was to spread and reinforce health and hygiene messages among children. Through media it is propagated that approximately 120 million children born in developing world each year and half of these children live in households without improved sanitation. Poor hygiene and lack of access to sanitation together contribute to about 88% of deaths from diarrheal diseases. Children suffer dis-proportionately from diarrheal and respiratory diseases resulting in deaths. Therefore, through this celebration we tried to convey the message of turning hands-washing with soap before eating and after using the toilet into an ingrained habit, which will cause to save more lives than any single vaccine or medical intervention.  We believe that more hands-washing with soap would make a significant contribution to meeting the Millennium Development Goal of reducing deaths among children under the age of five by two-thirds by 2015.

Keeping all the above facts in mind, we celebrated Global Hands-washing Day with full enthusiasm and active participation by students and their teachers. We believe that it became a powerful platform for advocacy aiming at the key stakeholders and increasing their commitment to actions, which we hope will encourage the behavioral change. Through this event, we were able to convey this message to homes and parents by motivating students.