World record wash-off: India versus South Africa
The World Health Organization launched their second annual Global Handwashing Day on October 15, 2009. The purpose of the two events was to break current world record holder, Bhiddwa School Niketon of Dhaka, Bangladesh, with 1,213 participants.
South Africa broke the current record with 1,802 Gauteng school-children participants with help from rugby hero Bryan Habana.
But it was India that demolished the current record holder with an amazing 15,000 students from 23 schools in Chennai. The handwashing celebration was held in Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium. Students had mixed feelings about the event saying, “Our teachers insisted that we came, otherwise we would not have bothered about this” and, “we knew that we are going to be part of a record-setting event. Despite being a bit tired, we find it great to be here.”
Congratulations, India.
Global Handwashing Day is Thursday, October 15, 2009
Break out the party hats, soap, vigorously running water, and paper towels, it’s Global Handwashing Day. Well, I guess it depends on where you are in the world. Several countries and organizations are celebrating in a variety of ways.
I think it should be like New Years. Everyone needs to make a Global Handwashing Resolution: wash your hands after using the bathroom, before and after eating, after coughing or blowing your nose, and a variety of other times dealing with bodily fluids and foods.
Something I can get behind ... or on: World Toilet Day
The World Toilet Organization, the other WTO, has proclaimed Nov. 19, 2008, World Toilet Day.
That’s because 2.6 billion people, or 4-out-of-10, have no access to a toilet.
CNN reports that Singaporean social-entrepreneur Jack Sim founded the non-profit World Toilet Organization in 2001, as a support network for all existing organizations. The group meets once a year to network, discuss sanitation issues and work together toward "eliminating the toilet taboo and delivering sustainable sanitation."
Goal number one: Making sanitation speakable. "What we don't discuss, we can't improve," insists Sim.
I’m all for that. With only a couple of weeks left till the increasingly uncomfortable Amy delivers, my conversations are soon to be dominated by the color, consistency and frequency of our baby’s poop. Oh, and the explosivity of it all.
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Although as guest barfblogger Michelle of New Jersey points out, shouldn’t World Toilet Day come before Global Handwashing Day, which was Oct. 15, 2008?
Water, soap and paper towel: Aggieville bars have the handwashing tools
As part of the first Global Handwashing Day, students Mayra Rivarola and Skyler Wilkinson visited 11 restaurant bathrooms in Aggieville, Manhattan (Kansas) to ensure patrons were at least provided the tools to properly wash their hands.
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All of the bathrooms rated highly. Only 1-of-the-11 had a failure, a lack of paper towel.
So, wash your damn hands. And don’t eat poop.
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Global Handwashing Day: no hand left behind
Michéle Samarya-Timm, of the Franklin Township Health Department in New Jersey writes:
Take a moment to look down at your hands. Are they clean? How about the hands of the person sitting next to you? Or the hands of the person shaking your hand, fixing your sandwich, caring for your child?
Increasing the practice of handwashing with soap is the international goal of the World Health Organization with the first-ever Global Handwashing Day, scheduled for Wednesday, October 15, 2008.
Handwashing with soap is an exceptionally efficacious and cost-effective health intervention, but one that is often considered trivial in our busy, hectic lives. Repeated observational studies show that many people don’t wash their hands as often or as thoroughly as they should. If conscientious handwashing can prevent you (and your loved ones!) from experiencing the inconvenience of vomiting and diarrhea, or reduce your risk for skin infections, eye infections, intestinal worms, and other communicable diseases, isn’t it worth it?
The challenge of Global Handwashing Day is to transform handwashing with soap from an abstract good idea into an automatic behavior performed in homes, schools, workplaces and communities. Turning handwashing with soap before eating and after using the toilet into an ingrained habit could save more lives than any single vaccine or medical intervention, cutting deaths from diarrhea by almost half and deaths from acute respiratory infections by one-quarter. In short, handwashing with soap could save 1 million lives per year.
Today and everyday you can make a difference. Speak up if a restroom is not adequately supplied with running water, soap and hand dryers/paper towels. Ask that foodhandler to wash his/her hands before making your sandwich. Most importantly, wash your hands after using the toilet and before you eat. And teach your kids to do the same.
Handwashing with soap is a cornerstone of public health across the globe and here at home. Handwashing with soap reduces disease. It’s cheap. It’s easy. It works to keep you healthy.
On this Global Handwashing Day, help ensure no hand is left behind.
