14 Oct Join us at the Global Handwashing Day Fair!
Celebrated each year on October 15th, Global Handwashing Day brings more than 200 million people together, in dozens of countries around the world, to promote one of the most effective ways to reduce the spread of disease.
Handwashing with soap is the most effective and inexpensive way to prevent acute respiratory infections like pneumonia, and diarrhea, which together take the lives of millions of children in developing nations every year. Yet, despite its lifesaving potential, handwashing with soap is seldom practiced and difficult to promote. A vast change in handwashing behavior is critical to meeting the Millennium Development Goal of reducing deaths among children under the age of five by two-thirds by 2015.
And yet there is strong reason for hope and progress. Research shows that children – the segment of society so often the most energetic, enthusiastic, and open to new ideas – can also be powerful agents for changing behaviors like handwashing with soap in their communities.
World Pneumonia Day is excited to join the WASH Advocacy Initiative, the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services and the Global Public Private Partnership for Handwashing at the first Global Handwashing Day Fair on Monday, October 17 from 12 pm – 2 pm at the Foggy Bottom Metro stop. We’ll be talking about the WPD Coalition’s work and the clear connection between handwashing and childhood pneumonia.
There will be a scavenger hunt with great prizes, information booths, and great food trucks! If you’re in Washington DC on Monday, please come visit us! [ Link to Map Location ]
