Resources / Handwashing with Soap - Two paths to national programs

Summary

This Field Note describes two Southeast Asian programs that are making handwashing a feature of everyday lives
on a national scale: the Handwashing Initiative (HWI) in Vietnam, which has reached nearly two million caretakers of young children and 80,000 students; and the Public-Private  Partnership for Handwashing with Soap (PPP-HWWS) in Indonesia, which has contributed to reaching millions of students, mothers, workers, and travelers.

Both programs demonstrate ideas that can be applied in other countries: the process of developing evidenced based materials in Vietnam could be applied in the development of materials. The Indonesia case study provides insights on how to leverage partnerships to increase reach in countries where handwashing with soap programs already exist.

And the lessons learned from Indonesia and Vietnam demonstrate that if national programs welcome new and different partners or promotion opportunities, then the reach of handwashing promotion can be enormous.