Entries categorized as ‘Hygiene Promotion’
A FEW years ago, a self-described “militant liberal” named Val Curtis decided that it was time to save millions of children from death and disease. So Dr. Curtis, an anthropologist then living in the African nation of Burkina Faso, contacted some of the largest multinational corporations and asked them, in effect, to teach her how to manipulate consumer habits worldwide.
Dr. Curtis, now the director of the Hygiene Center at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, had spent years trying to persuade people in the developing world to wash their hands habitually with soap. Diseases and disorders caused by dirty hands — like diarrhea — kill a child somewhere in the world about every 15 seconds, and about half those deaths could be prevented with the regular use of soap, studies indicate.
But getting people into a soap habit, it turns out, is surprisingly hard.
More - New York Times
Categories: Hygiene Promotion
Tagged: handwashing, Val Curtis
The Uganda Water and Sanitation Network (UWASNET) has launched a hand washing campaign to improve sanitation in the country. [...] The officer in charge of the project, Alex Mbagutta, said that most households especially in upcountry districts were still ignorant about sanitation. The campaign has been started in the districts of Lira, Mbale, Kiboga and Kabale and would soon spread to other parts of the country.
Source: New Vision (Kampala) / allAfrica.com, 23 June 2008
Categories: Africa · Campaigns and Events · Hygiene Promotion
Tagged: handwashing, Uganda
UNICEF and the European Union have launched the “Sustainable WASH Initiative for the Rural Poor in 21 Districts in Uganda contributing to the attainment of the MDGs” project on 1 July 2008 at Bukuku Primary School in Kabarole District.
The 4-year EU Water Facility (EUWF) project (2008-2011), is being implemented by UNICEF, the Ministries of Water & Environment (MWE), Education and Sports (MoES) and Health (MoH) and partners. It aims to increase access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation, and improve hygiene behaviour, with a focus on rural schools, health centres and communities.
The project aims to provide 25 per cent of the communities in the selected districts with increased access to safe drinking water, basic sanitation and improved hygiene behaviour.
The EU will contribute EUR 3.74 million, UNICEF EUR 1.2 million and the government will contribute EUR 266,000 towards the project.
Fewer than 1 in 5 primary schools, sampled by the Ministry of Education and Sports in 2006, were providing at least 5 litres of safe water per pupil, per day. Most schools do not have access to safe water within a walking distance of 500 metres. Although there has been a steady improvement in the pupil-to-latrine stance ratio since 1997, the current 61:1 is still high compared to the set standard of 40:1.
Sources: UNICEF ; Emmanuel Kajubu, New Vision, 03 Jul 2008
Categories: Africa · Hygiene Promotion · Sanitary Facilities
Tagged: school sanitation, Uganda
“Cholera which first broke out in Guinea Bissau in May in the southern region of Tombali has now broken out in the capital Bissau killing four people and infecting 214, according to Daniel Kertesz, representative of the World Health Organization (WHO).
So far across the country 325 cases have been reported and twelve people have died.”
[...]
The Ministry of Health is working with WHO, UNICEF, NGOs and others on a two-pronged strategy involving hygiene promotion and household water treatment.
“The Ministry of Health in setting up special sanitation brigades which go house to house showing people how to treat water by boiling it or purifying it with small amounts of bleach”
[...]
“Preventing cholera in the long term would involve drastically improving Guinea Bissau’s water and sanitation infrastructure. The country has some of the worst coverage of modern water and sanitation facilities in the world according to the UN. In rural areas under half of people have access to clean water and under a quarter can access a modern toilet.”
“Many people misinterpret cholera as a health problem when it is a problem of water and sanitation,” said Kertesz. “If people have clean water and access to sanitation facilities, they won’t get cholera.”
Read more: IRIN, 10 July 2008
Categories: Africa · Emergency Sanitation · Hygiene Promotion
Tagged: cholera, Guinea-Bissau, household water treatment
By Ernest Waititu, BBC Focus On Africa magazine
Sanitation in Ethiopia’s capital city leaves a lot to be desired - and it is the poor who are most vulnerable as a result. (…) The government is aware of the problem, admitting that dilapidated sewers, a lack of toilet facilities and general poor sanitation in the city are some of the leading causes of disease and death in the country.
The World Health Organization estimates that 64% of people in Ethiopia defecate in the open - although this is down from 91% in 1990. (…) The government says the situation is steadily improving: regional heath authorities are reporting better access to sanitation, while 30,000 key health workers are expected to be deployed in 2009 to promote personal hygiene as part of a campaign by the health department. (…)
Read all Ethiopianreview.com
Related story BBC Focus On Africa magazine “Living by Ethiopia’s sewage canal”
Categories: Africa · Hygiene Promotion · Sanitary Facilities · Sanitation and Health
Tagged: Ethiopia
Improving access to water, sanitation, and hygiene is discussed in this week’s lead Editorial and podcast. A new WHO report highlights how 10% of the global disease burden could be reduced by improved access to water and sanitation and by a staggering 15% in the 32 worst affected countries.
Read more The Lancet.com
Listen to The Lancet (podcast)
Categories: Hygiene Promotion · Policy · Publications · Sanitation and Health
Tagged: burden of disease, Lancet, WHO
CHANDIGARH: Celebrated global social service organisation, Sulabh International, today firmed up a strategic tie-up with the Punjab government for a statewide hygiene programme.
The Sulabh would join up the state government initially for the construction of public & private hygiene units, including improvised, low flush toilets for the rural and the urban poor in three districts (…)
Read all Punjabnewsline.com
Categories: Hygiene Promotion · Sanitary Facilities · South Asia
Tagged: India, Punjab, Sulabh
Given the headache that sanitation currently presents for communities all over the country, it is surprising that emphasis is not being put on teaching sanitation and hygiene in schools to inculcate such habits in children at an early age – as used to be the practice in the past.
People of a certain age still speak with nostalgia of their school days when even teeth and fingernails were regularly inspected at school and pupils were allocated plots on the school compound to keep clean and tidy.
The need to go back to teaching hygiene in schools was reportedly on the agenda recently when school health committees of the Ghana Education Service in the Adaklu-Anyigbe District, Volta Region, met.
As reported by the Ghana News Agency and published in this paper on June 17, members of the committee called for the introduction of hygiene as a co-curricular activity in basic schools. In their view, that would help to ensure cleanliness among students as well as sanitation in schools and communities in general.
More - Modern Ghana
Categories: Africa · Hygiene Promotion
Tagged: Ghana, hygiene
“The Nepal WASH Coalition is able to leverage media coverage and establish the ties needed to bring lasting change in the sanitation and water supply situation in Nepal. It has successfully increased coverage of sanitation issues in the media, educated communities and villages on the benefits of good hygiene practices, and has been able to convince the Government to endorse the Sanitation Model District Approach programme. The Nepal WASH Coalition also encourages sector stakeholders to come together as a group, in order to voice needs and suggest changes. As it grows in influence, the Nepal WASH Coalition brings much needed attention to a sector that is often shrouded in stigma.”
This is the conclusion of the May 2008 WASH case study on Nepal, one of a series published by the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC).
Categories: Hygiene Promotion · Publications · South Asia
Tagged: advocacy, Nepal
AMREF has put into action the Personal Hygiene and Sanitation Education (PHASE) programme in rural Kenyan communities where hygiene and sanitation conditions are often poor, resulting in the spread of dysentery, diarrhoea and cholera.
PHASE is also being implemented in the urban ‘slum’ settlement of Kibera, in Nairobi. Living conditions are particularly poor because the government doesn’t recognise the slum as its responsibility, and provides no basic water or sanitation, education or health services. Overcrowded conditions spread disease quickly, and children suffer poor health because of inadequate nutrition and lack of access to clean water and sanitation. (…)
Read all ReliefWeb
Original source: African Medical and Research Foundation (AMREF)
Date: 23 Jun 2008
Categories: Africa · Campaigns and Events · Dignity and Social Development · Education & training · Hygiene Promotion · Sanitation and Health
Tagged: Kenya
