by Joy M. Devanadera
Every 15th of October marks the celebration of the global advocacy of spreading the word about the importance of handwashing. This activity founded by Global Handwashing Partnership, was not only conducted by schools, but even by different institutions, NGO’s, private and individual sectors in the world. For this year, the theme is “Unite for Universal Hand Hygiene”.
Meanwhile, Department of Education also supports this aspiration. As a matter of fact, in line with the celebration, DepEd had announced October 13 , last Thursday, as the institution’s celebration of the Global handwashing Day, probably because October 15 falls weekend this year.
The activity, was conducted in a simple yet meaningful way nationwide including the Schools Division of Laguna. Whereas, school children were supervised by their respective advisers as they get on their way to their school hand washing facility to wash together their hands with clean soap and water. Apart from this, assigned School Health Coordinators were also been tasked document said activity as well as to create a video of it and post it via their DepEd Facebook School accounts to encourage more and more individuals to properly wash their hands.
During this pandemic it has been recommended that everyone must make handwashing a habit to avoid the spread of the Covid -19 virus and other illnesses. Moreover, proper handwashing is considered as the best and affordable way to reduce the risk of common diseases among school aged children like flu, diarrhea and even pneumonia. Studies also revealed that dirty hands as one of the causes of stunting among children.
Generally, this event will highlights the need for collaboration in having a culture that instills the values and importance of proper hand hygiene to every individuals ; young or old.
The first Global Handwashing Day was held in 2008 and was participated by more than 70 countries worldwide.
