Growing up, my mother had a unique way of ensuring we kept our hands clean before and after we ate. She would say that evil spirits dwelt in dirt and would get inside us if we ate with dirty hands or slept without washing them after meals. This was a stark contrast from my father’s approach - he just scowled at us to send the message! I grew up believing everyone observed perfect hand hygiene. This habit of always keeping my hands clean stuck with me into my adulthood. Of course I now understand that the evil spirits were germs; and I value both my mother’s and father’s approaches - while the earlier was sensitizing me in a language I could understand, the later chose to forcefully move me to action!

 

As one who grew up thinking that everyone practiced good hand hygiene, the Covid-19 pandemic proved me quite wrong when I noticed campaigns encouraging hand washing and businesses being forced to place hand washing stations outside their premises. This is when I realized that the education I had received about hand-washing was not available to all, and that the menace of dirty hands was a global issue. 

 

Handwashing with soap is a simple practice that most of us don't think deeply about. Yet, it is the single most effective way to stop the spread of infections and save lives. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), effective hand hygiene could prevent 165,000 deaths from diarrhoeal disease and 370,000 deaths from acute respiratory infections each year, reduce hospital acquired infections by 15%, and prevent one in 10 maternal deaths caused by infections associated with unclean birth environments. 

 

We tend to think of handwashing as a personal habit, not a community-wide responsibility that benefits everyone. A great case is a handwashing project implemented by Solidaridad and partners across four districts in Sri Lanka in 2020 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. The project, dubbed ‘Reaching the Unreached’, sought to raise awareness on proper hand hygiene and provide necessary facilities. Solidaridad reported that behavioral change contributed to realizing zero cases of COVID-19 in the project communities. Amazing, isn’t it? 

 

So, how can we, as communicators, play a part in mobilizing communities for better handwashing practices?

 

Moving communities to action: The first step in moving a community to action is to raise awareness about the importance of handwashing. One of the ways we as a company play a role in this, is guiding change makers to craft messages that highlight the importance of handwashing - communities need to understand the ‘why’ of proper hand washing practice. Communities also need to be continually reminded of the ‘how’ to wash hands effectively. A UNICEF article cites that promoting handwashing with soap (HWWS) has been shown to reduce the risk of acute respiratory infection by half in children under 5 years old. 

Speaking to change enablers: Raising community awareness must be accompanied by advocacy to stakeholders such as government agencies and funding partners for policy changes and financing to make handwashing accessible. This kind of communication guides policy and ensures that funds are allocated towards urgent actions. 

 

Emphasizing impact: Raising awareness on handwashing must involve educating caregivers, children, health workers, food handlers and the general community on benefits of proper handwashing with soap in preventing illnesses, such as diarrhea, respiratory infections, and the spread of contagious diseases like COVID-19.

If people can see the true impact of a simple practice, then they are certain to take action. We have found that one of the most impactful ways of showcasing outcomes is to bring the real people in front of the camera and let them tell the story of their own experience. 

 

Localizing the message: Today, especially after the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic, effective communication has become one, if not the most important first steps to achieving community health goals. Communicating information that empowers a community to action, in the words and language that they understand, is paramount to realizing sustainable goals. It is important to not stop at simple translation, but to tailor messages to specific needs and cultural nuances of the community as different communities may have unique traditions, languages, and belief systems that can impact their willingness to adopt new practices. To be effective, one has to engage with the community and find out how to communicate to them in a manner that is engaging, non-condescending and easily understandable. 

 

Engage Influencers and opinion leaders: Opinion leaders play a pivotal role in influencing local behavior. To mobilize a community towards adopting handwashing, we need to collaborate with respected figures in the community, such as religious leaders, village elders, women and youth leaders or school principals. A study highlighted by the International Water Association found that local leaders have a great influence on the communities and form key social structures for community engagement and buy-in. Having gained the leaders’ support was important, as communities who receive assurance from the religious leaders are very likely to accept and adopt new WASH interventions. Schools in particular can be very effective for the long term as children are more receptive to new ideas and are likely to retain learned behavior into adulthood. A great example is a study by The University of London where they found that local voices engaged frontline health worker trainees more quickly, built a trusted rapport, and were more easily understood in the fight against Ebola in West Africa.

 

Create Accessible Solutions: Handwashing needs to be easily convenient for everyone. 

 

This means establishing easily accessible handwashing stations in public places, schools, markets, and healthcare facilities. These stations should be equipped with soap and water. We can make it a community project to maintain and restock these stations regularly. However, this can be difficult for communities or individuals who are quite nomadic, whether in a cultural sense or how they earn a living. 

This is where solutions such as the SATO Tap, an easily portable and water-saving hand washing solution from SATO LIXIL, come in handy. 

When people can easily and conveniently access handwashing, they are most likely to completely change their behavior, especially after realizing they get ill less often from communicable diseases. 

 

Peer-to-Peer Influence: When individuals see their friends and neighbors adopting handwashing practices, they are more likely to follow suit, especially children and young adults, who are even more susceptible to communicable diseases. 

As an example, we recently ran a social media campaign in Tanzania for SATO LIXIL, where we used millennial social media influencers to highlight their SATO Tap hand washing station and encourage younger generations to practice handwashing. The campaign reached an incredible 1.1 million people in just two weeks!

 

Encouraging peer-to-peer influence within the community and fostering a sense of collective responsibility for public health is essential to sustained community-wide behavioral change. 

 

Community Engagement Campaigns: Nothing sells like fun! Getting the community to associate handwashing messaging with fun activities such as community and school sports tournaments, events, contests, or educational workshops that involve the whole community is a great way to spread awareness and foster a sense of unity and shared responsibility. Solidaridad and their partners, for instance, used short dramas, art exhibitions, poems and songs to portray the importance of handwashing in their campaign in Sri Lanka. 

 

Hands-On Training: To get everyone’s hands clean, you might need to get your hands a little dirty! Hands-on training sessions to teach proper handwashing techniques, especially to children in schools, can efficiently reach a large portion of the community’s most vulnerable group. Here, we will need to demonstrate practical exercises that can help community members understand the correct steps and duration for washing their hands. These training sessions can be conducted in schools, community centers, or through local health workers.

 

Conclusion

Mobilizing communities to take action on handwashing issues is essential for improving public health. By raising awareness, providing access to handwashing facilities and embracing a community led approach that fosters ownership, we can encourage individuals to make handwashing a habit. Remember, the goal is not just to change individual behavior but to transform the community's overall approach to hand hygiene. With patience, persistence, and a well-thought-out strategy, I believe communities can be empowered to protect themselves and others from preventable illnesses through the simple act of handwashing.