Sustaining Behavior Change Interventions: Enabling Environment for Handwashing with Soap in Peru

A new endline report discusses how Peru’s enabling environment for handwashing with soap has progressed since 2007.  The research, conducted by the Water and Sanitation Program (WSP), indicates that the enabling environment has been strengthened at both national and regional levels. In addition, efforts to integrate and institutionalize handwashing with soap behavior change into national, regional, and local policies related to health and nutrition, education, water, and sanitation have largely been achieved.

India: “edutainment” health camps focus on preventing diarrhoeal disease

A US-based health research firm, Abt Associates, has organised a series of diarrhoea prevention camps in low-income settlements in cities of Lucknow, Kanpur and Varanasi. The camps took place between May and July, the peak period of diarrhoeal outbreaks.

Saathi Bachpan Ke logo

The camps are part of the ‘Saathi Bachpan Ke‘ (Friends of Childhood) programme, funded through the USAID-India Market-Based Partnerships for Health Project.

Puppet theater teaches camp participants the importance of washing hands with soap, ORS use and purifying water to prevent and manage diarrhea. Photo: Abt Associates

The Abt team has produced an “edutainment” package for parents, caregivers and children participating in the camps. They are taught important life-saving behaviors – from washing hands with soap and purifying water to rehydrating children suffering with diarrhea. Key messages are reinforced through puppet shows, interactive games and quizzes.

Presentations and demonstrations are provided by physicians and other program supporters including manufacturers of soap, water purifiers, and oral rehydration salts, and public sector partners.

Related web site:  USAID India – Market-based Partnerships for Health (MBPH) – Saathi Bachpan Ke

See a promotional video of “Saathi Bachpan Ke” initiative on USAID India’s Facebook page.

Source: PTI / Deccan Herald, 07 Jul 2011 ; Abt Associates, 06 Jul 2011

Promoting good hygiene practices: Key elements and practical lessons

Promoting good hygiene practices: Key elements and practical lessons, 2011.

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WaterAid Australia, International WaterCentre, IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre.

The objective of this compilation is to strengthen the capacity of organisations to design and deliver effective hygiene promotion programs leading to the improved health of communities.

This compilation of three keynote papers and 31 case studies searches for answers to the question: What makes hygiene promotion work? The case studies are written by authors from a wide variety of organisations working in South Asia, South East Asia, the Pacific and Africa.  This compilation draws out a synthesis of key lessons and makes the case studies more accessible by providing a snap shot overview and access on an accompanying CD and a dedicated website at www.irc.nl/foams.

A Case Study Snapshot: Hygiene Improvement Project: Why WASH Matters: Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania

Renuka Bery, Julia Rosenbaum, Eleonore Seumo, Hygiene Improvement Project/

• Hygiene for people living with HIV or AIDS and their families
• Why WASH needs to be fully integrated in existing HIV/AIDS programs
• Trials of improved practice: negotiating with families to improve hygiene behaviour
• Small do-able actions: easy steps for behavioural change

Garbage Trucks Teach Children to Save the Environment

Garbage Trucks Teach Children to Save the Environment in New Earth Day Book, ‘Colonel Trash Truck’

Redondo Beach, CA (PRWEB) April 13, 2009 — Parents have a new way to teach children how to save the environment with the story of one of the world’s most eco-friendly garbage trucks in author Kathleen Crawley’s new children’s book “Colonel Trash Truck…Keeping the Planet Clean and Green.”

Colonel Trash Truck is a likable, fun-filled character who is extremely focused on his mission to win the garbage war. Crawley wrote the book, illustrated by Manuel Conde, for kids ages 3 to 6, with the goal to teach them early on in life to recycle and pick up trash, just in time for Earth Day 2009.

Being green is one of the most important issues today, but the number of those who actually recycle is estimated to be as low as 20 percent and as high as 50 percent. Why isn’t everyone recycling? Could it be that the older people get the less likely they are to start a new, good habit? If so, how do parents get kids to recycle and pick up trash early so that they will continue through adulthood?

Enter Colonel Trash Truck. Crawley noticed there are few things that really catch kids’ attention and believes imaginary, humorous characters are the best way to grab their interest and affect their behavior. She also noticed just how much kids love trucks, especially trucks that visit the house every week — garbage trucks.

“There’s no better way to teach kids to respect and save the environment than to introduce them to Colonel Trash Truck,” Crawley says. “‘Colonel Trash Truck’ appeals to children with its fun rhymes, vibrant illustrations and superhero-like persona. Colonel Trash Truck believes cleaning up trash and recycling is something we all must do and he wants nothing more than to have kids join him in his quest to ‘Keep the Planet Clean and Green’.”

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