This is a slide show for Global Handwashing Day which is October 15, 2008. Each photo is of a child washing their hands with soap from different countries around the world.
Promoting the practice of washing hands with
soap tops the international hygiene
agenda this year with the first-ever
Global Handwashing Day on October 15, 2008. The U.N.
General Assembly has designated 2008
the International Year of Sanitation, and
Global Handwashing Day will echo
its call for improved
hygiene practices.
The United States and other nations will commemorate this day to raise global awareness on the significance of handwashing with soap to reduce and prevent diarrheal diseases and pneumonia. Increasing access to and use of safe water and basic sanitation services and improved hygiene practices could reduce preventable child deaths, improve health and educational outcomes, and contribute to reduced poverty and sustainable development as a whole.
Handwashing with soap is a very cost-effective health intervention. Although people around the world wash their hands with water, a great many do not wash their hands with soap, even at critical moments (for example, after using the toilet, when cleaning a child, and before handling food). This year's focus will be on handwashing in schools, with a global challenge to mobilize schoolchildren throughout the world to simultaneously wash their hands with soap at a predetermined time to raise awareness of this important habit.
WHO Global Handwashing Day Resources
WHO's Clean Care is Safer Care program is concerned with improving hand hygiene everywhere in the world where health care is delivered.
