The theme of this year is Be A WASH Champion. WASH stands for WAter, Sanitation and Hygiene, a UNICEF initiative that focuses on providing basic facilities for communities that do not have hand washing facilities.
In order to Be A WASH Champion, OFC is promoting the eight steps of hand washing!
The issue of unsanitary practices is a huge one around the world.
- Worldwide, 2.2 billion people still lack access to safe drinking water.
- More than half of the global population does not have access to safe sanitation.
- Three billion people do not have access to handwashing facilities with soap.
- Still, 673 million people practice open defecation.
The consequences of unsafe water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) on children can be deadly. Over 700 children under age 5 die every day of diarrhoeal diseases due to lack of appropriate WASH services. Source: Unicef.org
About UNICEF: UNICEF promotes community-based handwashing through a variety of media and through campaigns like Global Handwashing Day, which reaches hundreds of millions of people every year. Our people-based approach has helped entire communities eliminate the dangerous practice of open defecation, many of whom reached Open Defecation Free status in 2019.