HOPE Handwashing Programme

HOPE Handwashing Programme

HOPE Handwashing Programme

HOPE (Health Oriented Preventive Education), an NGO in Pakistan has worked actively in the health sector in Pakistan. Besides running hospitals and maternal and child care centers, HOPE has also been involved in carrying out research projects regarding health issues. One such research project was the Handwashing Programme. The project aimed at finding out whether school-based handwashing interventions could result in reduced infectious illness among students and their family members in the developing world.

In Pakistan, primarily in the poorer communities where there is a significant lack of education, specifically hygiene education, illnesses like diarrhea, gastroenteritis, etc are very common. This is especially true among younger children, who contract diarrheal and respiratory disease very often due to lack of proper hygiene knowledge. HOPE carried out a research project that tried to establish whether an increased level of information regarding proper handwashing habits could in fact lower the chances of contracting such illnesses, not only among young children, but also including the rest of the family.

154 household in Karachi, Pakistan were randomized into three groups:

Control

Basic handwashing promotionconsisting of a 90-minute, school-wide lesson by Pakistani physicians about handwashing and germ theory, a small hygiene-related activity book for each child, and a certificate of program attendance

expanded handwashing promotion, which included all components of the basic handwashing promotion program plus a continuous supply of soap for the school handwashing stations and recruitment of one child per class to act as a handwashing 'champion' throughout the study.

For 5 months, teachers collected absenteeism information each school day; health information was collected biweekly from student households. The results indicated that those in the expanded handwashing programme, along with their household members experienced less infectious illnesses. It was also noted that although basic handwashing promotion did not have a significant change in absenteeism, the expanded handwashing programme did in fact show a lowered absenteeism rate, andsignificantly less illness, parental work absences due to illness, and physician visits among student households. Hence, it can be said that worldwide access to hand soap and peer hygiene education at schools in developing nations could have broad public health and economic implications.

POST COMMENT

Buy Customized Essay My PC runs slow. What makes a PC run faster? Martin Kaymer Is the World Number One Do you know how to handle your precuious photographs? Goodbye Rashes After Shaving The Actual Difficulties Relating To The Master Cleanse Fast Scheme Which Cladding Materials Are Best For You? Have You Had TaylorMade Burner SuperFast 2.0 Driver? Speeding Up Slow Startup Better Decision-making for a Better Turnout Items To Know About Battery Chargers Why Miracles Of The Eucharist - Part III Finchem Not Thought It Is Need to Stop Public Tip-offs