18. October 2024
Authors and photo credits for Benin: Abdias Bio Sika, Helvetas Benin
Authors and photo credits for Bangladesh: Rakibul Amin, Terre des hommes Foundation, Bangladesh
Commemoration days are a perfect occasion for awareness raising, sensitizing and celebrating in the institutions with all system actors. Find below two examples of this year’s global handwashing day celebration in a school in Benin and a health care facility (HCF) in Bangladesh:
To mark Global Handwashing Day 2024, Helvetas Benin organized the Hand Hygiene Olympics at the Baobab public elementary school in the commune of Kandi, Benin. In the spirit of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, schoolchildren representing their respective classes competed in fun and instructive sports games for learning about handwashing. The aim of these games was to reinforce the importance of handwashing among schoolchildren. Two sequences of games were run. the “handwashing relay race”, involving handwashing at handwashing stations or devices, enabled the learners to master the different stages of handwashing in a participative way. And “the jute bag or the germ jump” enabled them to understand that handwashing (represented by jumps) helps to avoid germs (represented by obstacles) and thus avoid falling ill (represented by literal falls).
At the end of the celebration, all those involved (teachers, parents, pupils, etc.) made and signed a commitment to promote and practice handwashing at the school. The parents pledged to guarantee the continuous availability of soap for handwashing in the school.
This year Tdh Bangladesh celebrated the global handwashing day at the Community Clinic, Kacchapia Nurbanu, Baharchara union, Teknaf sub district. Union Parishad members, Community Health Care Provider, healthcare personnel, teachers, students, members from Community Group, Community Support Group and the community in general were present and participated in the activities of the day consisting of an interactive question-and-answer session, a discussion and a dialogue. In line with this year’s theme “Why are clean hands still important?”, the focus was on reinforcing the critical importance of handwashing even in the post-pandemic world, where hand hygiene continues to be the frontline defense against spread of infections, illnesses, and harmful germs as well as on the importance of knowledge sharing and community collaboration for improving hand hygiene practices.
