15 October is Global Handwashing Day!
The practice of handwashing with soap tops the international hygiene agenda this year with the first-ever Global Handwashing Day, slated for Wednesday 15 October 2008. With 2008 as the UN International Year of Sanitation, the Global Handwashing Day will echo and reinforce its call for improved hygiene practices.
The agencies leading the Global Handwashing Day efforts are part of the Global PPPHW and include (but are not limited to) the Water and Sanitation Program (WSP/World Bank), UNICEF, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), USAID through the Hygiene Improvement Project (HIP), Procter and Gamble and Unilever.
The guiding vision of Global Handwashing Day is a local and global culture of handwashing with soap. Although people around the world wash their hands with water, very few wash their hands with soap at the critical occasions.
Global Handwashing Day is a campaign to motivate and mobilize millions around the world to wash their hands with soap. The campaign is dedicated to raising awareness of handwashing with soap as a key approach to disease prevention. The initiative was made at the annual World Water Week 2008, which was held in Stockholm from August 17 to 23 and initiated the Public Private Partnership for Handwashing (PPPHW). The Global Handwashing Day will take place for the first time on October 15, 2008, the date appointed by UN General Assembly in accordance with year 2008 as the International Year of Sanitation. Handwashing helps prevent you from getting germs. Read more…
