Global Handwashing Day 2024

In honor of yesterday’s Global Handwashing Day, we’re highlighting how we train community members to wash their hands in Western Kenya — and why handwashing is so important. 

Often, when we first enter a community, we’ll find that the community hasn’t been washing their hands effectively, as is the case in the video below. 

In Gamuguywa Community in Western Kenya, the family demonstrated their usual handwashing practice: first, the father rinses his hands in a basin, followed by the mother, and then the children from eldest to youngest. Our Impact Communication Officer, Jacklyne Chelagat, confirmed that this is a typical handwashing practice in rural Kenya. 

As you may already know, this method of handwashing is more likely to spread infections than curtail them. This is why the hygiene and sanitation training portion of each water project we install is so critically important to improving lives in sub-Saharan Africa.

This Global Handwashing Day, we celebrate the small yet powerful act of handwashing.

Why Handwashing is Important

Handwashing with soap is one of the most cost-effective ways to prevent diseases that claim millions of lives every year. Properly executed handwashing with soap reduces the spread of diarrhea, respiratory infections, and other diseases. Soap works by breaking down the germs that travel to our hands after we touch things. These germs can have devastating impacts if we don’t wash them away regularly. 

Without proper hand hygiene, harmful bacteria and viruses can spread rapidly. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), proper handwashing with soap can reduce diarrheal diseases by up to 40% and respiratory infections by around 20%. These illnesses are particularly dangerous for people with compromised or underdeveloped immune systems, such as children under five, the elderly, and pregnant women.

It is estimated that 1.4 million people, including nearly 400,000 children under five, die each year from preventable diseases attributable to inadequate water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH).

UNICEF

While this handwashing message is incredibly important to the people of sub-Saharan Africa, where these diseases are most prevalent, it’s also just a good reminder for everyone. During the COVID-19 pandemic, it seemed like many people stepped up their handwashing habits. Now that the threat of a mystery mega-illness is less pressing, we hope that the progress everyone has made in learning proper handwashing methods won’t disappear.

How Hygiene Training Saves Lives

Through our hygiene and sanitation training, we emphasize the critical difference between simply rinsing hands and washing them thoroughly with soap. 

In communities like Gamuguywa, we help members install handwashing stations that work without running water. One example is a tippy tap — a simple, hands-free device made from local materials that allows individuals to wash their hands properly and consistently.

Hygiene education is integrated into every project we implement because we know that access to clean water alone isn’t enough. It’s the combination of safe water, proper sanitation, and consistent hygiene practices that transforms lives. 

In Gamuguywa, families now know how to break the chain of infection, ensuring their children stay healthy and can attend school regularly.

Be Part of the Solution

If you feel, like we do, that the message of clean hands is incredibly important, then help us spread the message by supporting our work in sub-Saharan Africa. With every project, we train communities in soap-making, handwashing techniques, and how to prevent the spread of water-related diseases. Together, we can prevent deaths in the most vulnerable members of our global community.

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