Today hundreds of millions of schoolchildren and adults across the world will raise clean hands to celebrate the second annual Global Handwashing Day!
This is a part of a week of activities to encourage everyone to wash their hands with soap with the aim of improving hygiene and health.
Every year an estimated 3.5 million children die before their fifth birthday because of diarrhea and pneumonia. Simply washing hands with soap before eating and after using the toilet is one of the most effective and least expensive ways of preventing these illnesses, and could save more lives than any single vaccine or medical intervention. And faced with the global H1N1 outbreak, reinforcing good hand hygiene practice is particularly timely.
PHASE (Personal Hygiene and Sanitation Education) is a simple handwashing program that is helping save lives by teaching children the importance of handwashing, personal hygiene, water and waste sanitation. Initiated by GSK in 1998, it is a global initiative now operating in 13 countries, reaching more than one million children.
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PHASE takes a holistic approach to healthcare, education, community development and water and sanitation. More than 346,000 children and their families participated in PHASE-related activities in 2008, and this year we expect to reach even more!
(Image courtesy of Global Handwashing Day.)
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