India – Launch of school sanitation campaign

MUMBAI: Senior India cricketer Sachin Tendulkar has joined hands with NDTV and Coca Cola to improve sanitation in rural India through “Support My School” campaign which was launched on Monday.

“I cannot digest that because of no proper toilets, girls drop out of schools. Education is very important for every child and I am extremely happy and privileged to be part of this campaign. Everyone should support this cause,” Tendulkar, who launched the campaign as its brand ambassador, said.

“There are a lot of experienced people to take this campaign forward but it boils down to financial contribution without which things cannot be achieved,” he added.

UNICEF/India: Healthy Hat-Trick, Sachin Tendulkar Sanitation PSA

UNICEF/India: Healthy Hat-Trick, Sachin Tendulkar Sanitation PSA

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India sets target of 28 toilets a minute

INDIA has to do a big job. More than half a billion citizens don’t have a toilet and the country needs to build 28 new loos every minute over the next four years to meet the Indian Government’s ambitious sanitation target.

One in two Indians, or about 650 million people, now defecate in the open and the untreated waste poses a serious health risk.

Last year India added about 11 million new toilets but the government wants the rate of construction to increase. (…)

The Indian cricket star, Sachin Tendulkar, has been enlisted to help promote hand washing with soap, which can reduce diarrhoeal cases by almost half and acute respiratory illnesses by 30 per cent.

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Global Handwashing Day videos

On 18 October 2008, Global Handwashing Day was celebrated for the first time in over 70 countries.

Watch below the official Global Handwashing Day video, with Nelson Mandela and clips from Africa, Asia and Latin America – also available on the Global Handwashing Day web site. The song is by UNICEF Goodwill Ambassadors, The Wiggles, a children’s music group from Australia.

UNICEF has also produced a special video for Global Handwashing Day. It features UNICEF Senior Adviser for Sanitation and Hygiene Therese Dooley, UNICEF goodwill ambassador. singer Hayley Westenra, in Ghana and The Wiggles.

UNICEF India made this public service announcement video clip featuring International cricket sensation Sachin Tendulkar.

Bollywood actress Raima Sen, accompanied by Sulabh International’s Bhindeswar Pathak, launched the Global Hand Washing Day campaign to teach school children about handwashing at constitution club in New Delhi, India.

Millions mark UN hand-washing day

Millions of children around the world are marking the United Nations’ first Global Handwashing Day.

In India, cricket star Sachin Tendulkar will be leading the campaign that will see children across South Asia simultaneously washing their hands.

The UN says it wants to get over the message that this simple routine is one of the most effective ways of preventing killer diseases.  (…)

(…) From Kabul to Karachi and from Delhi to Dhaka, millions of children will take part in the campaign and pledge to embrace more hygienic practices by the simple act of washing their hands.  India has recruited one of the country’s biggest sporting icons, cricket star Sachin Tendulkar, to be the face of the campaign. Washing hands will be the topic of Afghan television and radio talk shows and Pakistani newscasts.  Nepal’s new Maoist government is sending out mobile text messages. In Bhutan, special animated videos have been made with Bhutanese characters (…)

Read all BBCNews.co.uk and UNICEF, 14 Oct 2008