Global Handwashing Day

When folks ask me what I do, most times, I tell that that I stay at home to look after kids. Sometimes when I’m in a crabby mood, I tell them that I’m a driver-chef-reader-playmate-plus-butt & hand washer to my kids. Fortunately I’m not crabby too often.

I’m not joking about the job description though, and today, I’m here to talk about the hand washing part of my job.

Like most Mums I know, the phrases “HAVE YOU WASHED YOUR HANDS??” and “WASH YOUR HANDS FIRST!” frequently fall from my lips. In my case, this is with good reason, because I’ve got a nail-biter on my hands. Observe Specimen A:

Yes, “STOP BITING YOUR NAILS!” is another phrase I constantly use, this one to no effect.

Until we are able to get Noey to stop biting his nails, hand washing is that much more important for preventing all the icky stuff that he touches from going straight into his mouth. Same goes for Nomi since she’s still at the stage where she loves to put everything into her mouth! Just the simple practice of washing their hands with soap goes a long way in making sure that they stay healthy and free from infectious diseases.

I’m feeling particularly strongly about this message at this time because Noey and I have just recovered from a bout of gastric flu. We came down with it at the most inopportune time — during the week of Noey’s birthday, quite possibly the most busy week of my life in a while. The stomach pains and the diarrhoea? Not fun at all. There is a bug going round in his school, which is where I think he might have caught it and passed it along to me. Part of me wonders if we could have avoided it if he had washed his hands more thoroughly at school and stopped putting his fingers in his mouth.

Yet I’m also thankful that we live in a part of the world where gastric flu and the diarrhoea that accompanies it can be easily and quickly treated. 

Did you know that diarrhoea is second largest cause of childhood deaths for children under 5? Or that 2 million children under 5 die from pneumonia and diarrhoeal diseases each year? And yet, many of these deaths could have been prevented by the simple habit of regular hand washing with soap. My heart aches to think of the children who fail to reach adulthood as a result of something as straightforward as that.

Today, October 15, is Global Handwashing Day. (Bet you didn’t know that!) You can play a part in marking this occasion by joining in Lifebuoy’s cause to raise awareness of the benefits of hand washing with soap. Pledge to help a child reach 5. (Just “like” the page!) With every pledge, Lifebuoy will work with the Millennium Villages Initiative to educate children across 10 countries in Africa on good hand hygiene. Just a simple commitment to help children who otherwise not live past the age of 5. I’ve made the pledge, and I hope you will to.