Global Handwashing Day
The practice of handwashing with soap tops the international hygiene agenda on October 15th, with the celebration of Global Handwashing Day.
Handwashing with soap is among the most effective and inexpensive ways to prevent diarrhoeal diseases and pneumonia, which are together responsible for the deaths, of over 3.5m children before their 5th birthday, every year.
Although people around the world wash their hands with water, very few wash their hands with soap at critical moments eg after going to the toilet, cleaning a child or before handling or eating food. The challenge is to transform handwashing with soap from an abstract good idea into an automatic behaviour performed in homes, schools, workplaces and communities worldwide.
This would save more lives than any vaccine or medical intervention. Global Handwashing Day is the centrepiece of a week of activities that will mobilise millions of people across five continents to wash their hands with soap.
Children – the segment of society so often the most energetic, enthusiastic and open to new ideas – can act as agents of change by taking the ‘handwashing lessons’ learned at school back into their homes and communities. Global Handwashing Day aims to motivate children to embrace and share proper handwashing practices and place them as ‘handwashing ambassadors’ at the heart of each country’s national and local initiatives.
Get Involved
Download the Global Handwashing Day poster in colour or black and white below. Print it off, and display it in your loo...
- GHD09 Colour Poster (pdf)
- GHD09 Black & White Poster (pdf)
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