Global Hand-washing Day: Clean Hands Saves Lives

On Friday, October the 15th, individuals, governments and NGOs in over 70 countries took part in festivities for second annual Global Hand-washing Day. The guiding vision of GHD is to raise awareness of the importance of washing your hands with soap and water before eating and after using the latrine. It may seem like a silly day to celebrate at first, but ingraining hand-washing after latrine use as a habitual behavior is difficult. This is not just in developing countries either. Does anyone remember that Seinfeld when the chef comes out of the toilet to find Jerry at the sink, tells him he is going to make his meal personalty, and then leaves without washing? Hilarity in-sued.
This issue, however, does complicate in a developing nation, where resources are limited and traditional behaviors are hard to change. While many people will use water to wash away the visible dirt, without soap it is just not enough. Anther problem is faced when there is no running water for households, and many individuals will wash in the same basin of water. In fact, the United Nations reports that more than 3.5 million children under the age of five die each year from diseases preventable simply by washing your hands with soap. Therefore, this intervention could save more lives than any single vaccination or medical intervention.
I am happy to say that Santa Elena Village, Toledo, took part in this worldwide day of health awareness. The teachers and principal of the village school and myself planned an variety of educational presentations and games. We had the children paint signs to put near the latrines to remind people to wash their hands, a germ spreading demonstration with glitter, presentations on the path of germs, a competition for the best hand washing song or poem (to sing while washing hands), and a hand washing relay race with tippy-taps that the upper division students built.
As I said, one of the big issues with washing hands in developing nations is the lack of running water, and my village faces this same problem. It is custom that there is just a bowl of water on the the floor that everyone washes their hands in as they enter a house for a meal. While it is good that the habit of washing hands before meals is present, the dirty water in the bowl is not doing much good. To solve the problem of no running water, some people have come up with the idea of the “tippy-tap.” There are many different ways to make one, but we made ours with: 4 length of stick, string, a large empty cola bottle, and two nails. We set the two long sticks in the ground about 3 feet apart, nailed another stick to the top of these two. Tied the empty cola bottle just under the cap (the cap had small holes poked in it) and tied the back end with a sting that went up over the top stick and tied to anther stick on the ground. We set it up so that each 3 foot stick U had a pair of washing stations (two cola bottles and step sticks)
The way it worked is that when you step on the stick and push it down, it pulls the string attached to the back of the cola bottle and lifts the back end up. This sends the water in the bottle to the now downward facing cap and out the holes. Shabang! You have running water to wash you hands. We then cut off the bottom of a small soda bottle (12 oz) poked a hole in it near the top, strung it to the middle of the top (horizontal) stick, and used it as a soap holder. It had a few kinks we had to work out. For one the string was to thin . It frayed greatly going over the top stick. We made it work for the relay raced though, and the kids had a blast. A lot of the community came out to watch, laugh, and inquire about the strange water device. It was definitely the highlight of the day. We made make a few changes to the tippy-taps to make them more durable, and then set them up outside the latrines at the school. Then the students will have their days when they are responsible for making sure the bottles are filled. My hope is that the kids find it handy, and it spreads to the homes.
The first annul Global Hand-washing Day was a fun, informative day for all. Next time you wash your hands you can sing our song:
Wash wash wash your hand, wash them fore' you eat! Use some soap, lots of soap, to wash the germs away!
Two times through with the soap on your hands and you'll be all clean. I still hear the kids singing the song loudly at the “tippy-tap” so I think the day can be called a success.