Global Handwashing Day is a campaign to motivate and mobilize millions of children and adults worldwide to wash their hands with soap especially before eating and after using the toilet. The Public Private Partnership for Handwashing with Soap (PPPHS) established Global Handwashing Day in 2008. The campaign, which was conceived at last year’s World Water Week, was mounted for the first time on October 15, 2008 – the date designated by the United Nations General Assembly in accordance with the declaration of the year 2008 as the International Year of Sanitation.

Focusing on schools and children, this year’s Global Handwashing Day will continue to promote the habit of proper handwashing with soap through a variety of activities to be held in classrooms, playgrounds, community centers, and major public areas of towns and cities. The reason for the continued focus on children stems from the fact that “this segment of society, so often the most energetic, enthusiastic, and open to new ideas, can also be powerful agents of behavioral change.’’

Handwashing with soap has been found to be “the single most effective and inexpensive way to prevent diarrhea and acute respiratory infections’’ and reduce the risk of cholera and dysentery. Pneumonia, a major acute respiratory infections, is considered the leading cause of child mortality and accounts for about 1.8 million child deaths annually.

Together, diarrhea and pneumonia account for nearly 3.5 million child deaths a year.

The habit also contributes toward achieving the relevant Millennium Development Goals on health improvement and child mortality. However, the success of the campaign for proper handwashing with soap will greatly depend on the accompanying efforts of the public and private sectors to make available clean water and provide broader access to other health and sanitation services.

Parents would do well to instill among their children the benefits of washing their hands after play, before eating, and after using the comfort room at home, in school, and in public places. Handwashing with soap can save more lives than a single vaccine or medical intervention. It can reduce diarrhea-related deaths by as much as one-half, and deaths from acute respiratory infections by a quarter.