October 9, 2017
By Dr. Emmanuel Opong, Regional Director, WASH and Capacity Building, World Vision International. Originally published by World Vision International on October 4, 2017.
What if no one ever washed their hands?
(And, yes, this includes no hand sanitizer)
How long would we expect life as we know it to persist?
Well, if you live in a developed country, you might expect that life could still go on for a good while. We have other ways and means of keeping our environment clean, and we could avoid other behaviours, such as shaking hands, to prevent the spread of germs.
But, things would still break down—probably more quickly than we’d expect.
Think about it…
In clinics and hospitals, disease and infection would run rampant if healthcare workers did not wash their hands. In schools and childcare centres, illness would spread like wildfire—especially among the youngest. Public places, like grocery stores, office buildings or shopping malls, would be veritable incubators for disease. Fresh produce would no longer be safe to eat raw. Any surface you touch would be like a petri dish, and germs would transfer much more quickly because there would be an accumulation on the hands of each and every person to quicken the spread.
What would this mean to the future as we know it? We might see:
In fact, in many parts of the world, this is exactly what happens on a daily basis. And this often happens in environments where there are a lot of other factors in play that can negatively affect someone’s health—unclean water, open defecation, lack of food security, malaria, poor healthcare, and more. Handwashing with soap is an even more important protective measure in these places where the risks are so great and the cost is so dear.
Handwashing is often called a ‘do-it-yourself’ vaccine. Inexpensive and independently done, and it is hugely effective in preventing the spread of all kinds of disease, particularly diarrhoea.
What if we strive for all children, all around the world, to be the handwashing generation—how much brighter would the future be, just with that one simple action?
At World Vision, we’ve partnered with Sesame Workshop to raise up the future handwashing generation through the WASHUP! Initiative. WASHUP! helps children understand and adopt healthy sanitation and hygiene behaviors. Teachers are trained in good sanitation and hygiene practices, and they use WASHUP! tools games and materials to deliver fun, engaging and educational WASH behavior change messages to school-age children. The programme began in Zambia and is now rolling out in six other countries—Ghana, Lebanon, Mali, Niger, Malawi, and Zimbabwe.
Join World Vision on 11 October 2017 for a webinar with its partner Sesame Workshop to learn about WASHUP! Read more and register.
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© 2017 The Global Handwashing Partnership (GHP).