Diarrhea remains one of the main threats to child health and well-being in the developing world – each year killing nearly two million children under five and causing more than five billion disease episodes. Washing hands with soap at critical times – after contact with feces and before handling food – could reduce diarrheal rates by up to 47 percent (Curtis and Cairncross, 2003). However, rates of handwashing with soap remain low throughout the developing world and large-scale promotion of handwashing behavior change is a challenge.
Scaling Up Reach
The project is currently being implemented in Peru, Senegal , Tanzania, and Vietnam. As of June 2009:
- 28.6 million women and children have been exposed to the project’s mass media campaigns
- Over 1.9 million women and children have been engaged through repeated face-to-face interactions with trained outreach workers
- 49.000 women and children have been exposed through promotional edu-tainment events
- More than 14,000 people representing a diversity of sectors and segments of society including teachers, health professionals, local Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), university students and teachers, community volunteers, local government officials, and private sector firms have been trained to facilitate and support handwashing with soap behavior change.
Core Project Components
Core components include:
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