From Okwe Obi, Abuja
In a bid to promote good hygiene, healthy living and to mark this year’s Global Handwashing Day, Africa Youth Growth Foundation (AYGF) and U-SAVE Foundation, staged a campaign at Government Day Secondary School, Bwari Area Council Council in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja.
Aside the sensitisation, the foundations donated handwashing water dispensing buckets, towels, hand sanitizers and hand wash to the school and demonstrated to the students the proper ways to wash their hands and take their hygiene seriously.
The theme for this year’s event is, “Clean hands are within reach.”
AYGF Executive Director, Arome Salifu, who cited the World Health Organisation, noted that an estimated 14 million people, including children die each year from preventable diseases attributable to lack of poor hand washing.
According to him, unsafe hand washing hygiene alone was responsible for 394,000 deaths from diarrhoea and 356,000 deaths from ARIs (WHO 2023).
Salifu recalled that in 2022, 3 out of 4 people had access to basic hygiene services, adding that monitoring handwashing behaviour is difficult.
He posited that with the presence of soap and water at designated places has shown to be a robust proxy indicator.
The AYGF boss pointed out that since 2015 the population with access to basic hygiene services had increased by over 1 billion, from 5.0 billion (67%) to 6 billion (75%).
Arome, represented by the AYGF Head of Programmes, Nelson Egbunu, said: “We aim to engage the students of Bwari Local Government with interactive activities that will promote handwashing, which include handwashing demonstrations, games, competitions, and educational sessions; Develop informative and easy-to-understand educational content that explains the importance of handwashing, when and how to wash hands, and the benefits of
proper hygiene.
“The event will be used as an opportunity to advocate improved hygiene infrastructure and policies.
“Participants will be encouraged to
continue practicing good and healthy hygiene as a lifelong habit.
“Feedback from participants and partners will be collected abd used to identify areas for improvement.
“In order to sustain our efforts to promote handwashing beyond Global Handwashing Day, we plan to establish partnerships with local health organisations, schools, community groups, and government agencies to secure long-term funding and support.
“We will also explore potential corporate sponsorships and grants from foundations that share our mission for promoting hygiene and improving health outcomes.
“Furthermore, we will make use of social media platforms and other digital channels to keep the conversation going and maintain engagement with our target audience.
“By consistently sharing educational
resources and organizing events throughout the year, we hope to create a culture of handwashing and hygiene that will have a lasting impact on the health and well-being of communities worldwide.”