The Ministry of Water and Environment in Uganda has rallied stakeholders in the sanitation space to curtail the spread of infectious diseases, through popularizing regular hand washing.
This carefully conceived intervention was unveiled on April 25th, during a press briefing which was grounded in a function to flag off regular and frequent hand washing with soap at Quality supermarket Naalya.
In close partnership with Rotary Club Naalya, Riham, Quality Supermarket Naalya, Stanbic Bank, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education and Sports (MOES), the Water Ministry leveraging support from UNICEF conceived the National Hand washing Communication Strategy dubbed “I Wash; You Wash – clean hands for all” (IWYW) campaign as a toolkit through which sustainable hand washing would be implemented countrywide.
Engineer Joseph Oriano Eyat, the Director water Development in the Ministry of water and Environment told the press during the campaign flag off, that poor sanitation and hygiene is the leading cause of high infant mortality rates in Uganda.
He urged concerned stakeholders to popularize hand washing with soap, as a sustainable and cheap measure to ward off health risks posed by poor hygiene, such that the average national hand washing target of 50% is achieved by 2025.
“Hand washing with soap is a simple but cost effective way of preventing hygiene related infections, including respiratory diseases, diarrhoea and Ebola,” Engineer Oriano told the press.
It should be noted that proper sanitation and hygiene entails behaviors that can improve cleanliness and lead to good health. Many proactive sanitation measures can deliver good health, but frequent handwashing with water and soap has been found to be the cornerstone of the most effective health precautions.
The constructive collaboration amongst partners in the ‘Wash’ campaign is tailored towards perpetuating regular hand washing with soap, to curtail the spread of virus and bacterial linked infectious diseases, in a greater effort to ensure a healthy citizenry, chiefly Karamoja subregion residents.
Through this campaign, the public has been encouraged to join key players in donating soap that will be distributed to schools in Karamoja Subregion, with a total of 22,000 pieces of soap realized since the activation of the IWYW campaign, and these will be disbursed to schools in Karamoja.
Musa Birungi, the representative from the Ministry of Education and Sports (MOES) said the decision to majorly focus on Karamoja Subregion was informed by 2019 statistics from the Ministry of Water and Environment, which indicated that this semi arid area surprisingly lags behind at 7.6% in handwashing practices against the national average of 36.5%
“This campaign is aimed at activation of a campaign aimed at strengthening the practice of hand washing with soap, as key ingredient in disease prevention in Karamoja region and Uganda at large,” Birungi told the press.
Dr. Herbert Nabaasa, the Commissioner Environmental Health at the Ministry of Health also told the press that average nation wide regular hand washing with soap will hit 75%, only if relevant stakeholders succed in convincing people to develop a positive mental attitude towards the practice.
“It has to be a mindset change. It has to be a reorientation of our behaviors as individuals. It starts with us the individuals and who are the individuals it is a whole society approach. You cannot be government and you are running around telling people to wash hands, okay?” said Dr. Nabaasa.
It has to be noted that there is a neat link between infectious diseases and disorders such as diarrhoea, cholera, pinworms, ringworms, trachoma, to poor hygiene and sanitation, which has climaxed into high infant mortality rates in many parts of Uganda.
Governments and public health experts worldwide have been emphasizing regular hand washing with detergents – it really works. Good hand hygiene according to these experts could reduce cases of respiratory diseases by 20%, and diarrhoea by 30%.
The campaign is spearheaded by the National Hand Washing initiative (NHWI) hosted by the Ministry of Water and Environment, partnering with the Health Ministry, as well as other ‘wash’ partners across the country.
Do you have a story in your community or an opinion to share with us: Email us at editorial@watchdoguganda.com
