Close to a thousand students at St Joseph the Worker Primary School in Nakasi today marked global hand washing day.
The students organized an Art competition with each student portraying their understanding of the day through design and color.
Assistant Minister for Health Veena Bhatnagar says the day has been celebrated in Fiji since 2010 and that children are the focus of efforts to promote proper hygiene habits.
‘’The school students are targeted since they are instrumental for behavioural change the challenge is to transform hand washing with soap before eating and after using the toilet into an ingrained habit from an abstract good idea into an automatic behaviour performed in schools, homes and respective communities’’.
The Mission for Global Hand Washing is to encourage and support a culture of hand washing with soap.
Children suffer from diarrheal diseases with more than 3.5 million children under the age of five dying each year.
Hand washing with soap is one of the most effective and inexpensive ways to prevent diarrheal diseases.
When it comes to taking care of one’s health, cultures across the world may differ on many fronts, but the importance of good hand washing practices is a common trait.
