Ghana: Children At Centre of Handwashing Campaign

Handwashing campaigners in Ghana have placed children at the centre of this year’s commemoration of the annual Global Handwashing Day which falls on October 15 every year.

This year is the 5th year since Ghana joined the campaign and campaigners are seizing the opportunity to emphasise the need to stop child mortality, especially under-five deaths.

The theme ‘Five Years of Global Handwashing Day Celebration: Going Beyond the 5th Birthday of Children’ has been chosen to help more children reach and go beyond their 5th birthday, a statement by the Community Water and Sanitation Agency (CWSA), hosts of the campaign in Ghana, indicated.

‘Handwashing with soap is one of the most effective and inexpensive ways to prevent diarrhoea disease and pneumonia, which together are responsible for approximately 3.5 million child deaths every year,’ the statement explained.

Children are highly susceptible to the diseases caused by a lack of effective sanitation and poor hygiene. More than 5,000 children under the age of five die every day as a result of diarrhoea diseases, caused in part by unsafe water, lack of access to basic sanitation facilities and poor hygiene. By washing hands with soap, families and communities can help reduce child mortality rates from diarrhoea diseases by almost 50 per cent and respiratory infections by nearly 25 percent, campaigners indicated.