Global Handwashing Day, 15th October 2008  

Millions of children in 20 countries across 5 continents will join hands on the first ever Global Handwashing Day.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) says "Diarrhea kills 2 million children every year! The simple Hygienic habit of washing hands with soap and water would cut this number by half".

For further information please visit the Global Hand Washing Day web site.

Washing with soap is the most COST EFFECTIVE way of reducing the numbers of the three and a half million children world wide who do not reach their 5th birthday.

Global Handwashing Day goes on to say

"The practice of handwashing with soap tops the international hygiene agenda this year with the first-ever Global Handwashing Day, slated for Wednesday 15 October 2008. With 2008 as the UN International Year of Sanitation, the Global Handwashing Day will echo and reinforce its call for improved hygiene practices.

"The agencies leading the Global Handwashing Day efforts are part of the Global PPPHW and include (but are not limited to) the Water and Sanitation Program (WSP/World Bank), UNICEF, Center for Disease Control (CDC), the Hygiene Improvement Project (HIP/USAID), Proctor and Gamble and Unilever.

"The guiding vision of Global Handwashing Day is a local and global culture of handwashing with soap. Although people around the world wash their hands with water, very few wash their hands with soap at the critical occasions."

Image and text courtesy of www.globalhandwashingday.org