On October 15, millions of people around the world celebrated Global Handwashing Day. This year’s theme, “Clean Hands for All,” highlighted the importance of addressing handwashing inequities. Read the highlights from this year’s Global Handwashing Day below.
Celebration Highlights
Lifebuoy's High 5 for Handwashing
Unilever's Lifebuoy has a billion reasons to celebrate Global Handwashing Day! What started off as a target to improve handwashing behaviors by 2020 has evolved into a global mission.
Lifebuoy met their initial target of reaching 1 billion children through handwashing behavior change efforts a little early, but they're not stopping there. Read here to learn more about their efforts to ensure clean hands around the world and how you can help a child reach 5.
Enugu State Constructs Tippy Taps
The first lady of Enugu State (Nigeria), Monica Ugwanyi, promoted Global Handwashing Day by constructing taps for contactless handwashing among school students. Read more about tippy tap construction and these efforts here.
Safeguard Philippines and Manila Water Foundation
Safeguard Philippines and Manila Water Foundation partnered with the Philippine General Hospital to promote the benefits of clean hands, especially in schools and hospitals.
Safeguard and Manila Water Foundation also teamed up to construct five-faucet handwashing facilities in more than 30 public schools in key cities nationwide, benefiting more than 100,000 students and teachers. Read more about their partnership here.
Global Handwashing Day Community Forum
This year, the Global Handwashing Partnership hosted a community forum, which served as a centralized space for partners to share their efforts toward Clean Hands for All. Below are some highlighted posts from this year's community forum.
CDC's New Life is Better with Clean Hands Campaign
CDC recently launched their Life is Better with Clean Hands campaign, which is designed to motivate adults to make clean hands part of their daily lives. This post describes the campaign in more detail and provides links to all new resources and materials!
Enough with trainings! What else to consider when promoting handwashing among clinicians
Global Water 2020's Lindsay Denny reflects on her experiences in the field and what is needed to change hand hygiene in healthcare settings. This post discusses five key components that are also crucial to ensure proper hand hygiene among health practioners.
In emergency settings, handwashing with soap can be the best defense against disease outbreaks. This post describes the Wash'em process, which is designed to work within the constraints of the humanitarian system. Learn more about this approach here.
Global Handwashing Day Reporting
Every year, the Global Handwashing Partnership collects outcomes from Global Handwashing Day events and campaigns. If you have not done so, please report your Global Handwashing Day outcomes using our reporting form here.
Beyond Global Handwashing Day
Global Handwashing Day is a once-a-year opportunity to make a big splash in support of handwashing with soap, but the important work of hygiene promotion shouldn't end after October 15. Fill out our survey to tell us what you think are the major issues and challenges related to clean hands for all here.
Other News and Resources
The Global Handwashing Partnership strives to keep our audience up-to-date with the latest news and resources around handwashing. Find events and resources below.
Life is Better with Clean Hands Promotion Toolkit:This toolkit includes promotion and outreach suggestions, sample social media messages and newsletter announcements, links to online campaign materials, and a list of CDC’s online handwashing resources.
WASH in Health Care Facilities Knowledge Portal: This knowledge portal provides the latest standards, tools, approaches, achievements, and learnings around ensuring WASH in healthcare settings.
