Issues
• Each day thousands of hotels discard millions of pounds of soap. These products often end up in landfills & contaminate groundwater.
• Impoverished people around the world die every day from acute respiratory infection and diarrheal disease because they have no soap. Each year more than five million lives are lost to these diseases with the majority of deaths being among children less than five years old.
• Simple hand washing substantially reduces the spread of these diseases.
• Unfortunately, the essential items for proper hand washing are unobtainable for a lot of people.
Articles and News:
- http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=557014740988994&set=vb.333766926647111&type=3 A very powerful message about soaps, by Lifebouy (Mar, 2013)
- http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/ConsumerNews/washing-hands-soap-hand-sanitizer/story?id=8941662 Technique is more important than technology (Feb, 2013)
- Stopping the Spread of Germs at Home, Work & School CDC's Tips on Handwashing (Jan, 2013)
- Good Vs. Poor Hand Washing: A Graphic Demo ABC News video (Nov, 2012)
- Getting it right : improving maternal health through water, sanitation & hygiene (Simavi is a Netherlands-based public health NGO with projects in Asia and Africa, Oct, 2012)
- Hygiene: new hopes, new horizons
Although promotion of safe hygiene is the single most cost-effective means of preventing infectious disease, investment in hygiene is low both in the health and in the water and sanitation sectors. Evidence shows the benefit of improved hygiene, especially for improved handwashing and safe stool disposal (http://www.thelancet.com/ Sept, 2012) - Pneumonia and diarrhoea
Tackling the deadliest diseases for the world’s poorest children (A Unicef Report, June, 2012) - Handwashing Awareness
"the most important thing you can do to keep from getting sick is to wash you hands." Judicious hand washing can prevent not only common diseases like colds, but also more serious diseases like hepatitis A, meningitis, and infectious diarrhea. (Centers for Disease Control) - A recent UN report: Diarrhea, pneumonia leading causes of death for young children
Adequate nutrition, hand washing with soap, safe drinking water and basic sanitation are also deemed vital safeguards against pneumonia and diarrhea, but are largely absent in impoverished regions. (http://www.foxnews.com/ June, 2012) - World Bank Helps to Provide Improved Water and Sanitation Services to over 4 million Ethiopians (A World Bank Press Release, Ma,y 2012)