Resources / Who is Responsible for Soap in Pakistani School Toilets?

Summary

Hand washing with soap could potentially avert approximately a million diarrhoea deaths a year (Curtis and Cairncross, 2003). Several hygiene promotion projects are targeting schoolchildren in Pakistan. Soap companies have also launched hygiene campaigns. Yet knowledge gaps exist as to specific factors that initiate and sustain habit change among Pakistani schoolchildren, especially in schools in low-income urban wards. Meta-analysis suggests that focused hand-washing promotion may be more effective than hygiene education measures (Fewtrell and Colford, 2004).

PIEDAR has conducted a study to assess:

• sources of hygiene information of the children,
• reported hygiene practices of children, teachers, and parents,
• how the reported practices compare with observed behaviours.

 The study shows that hygiene knowledge is common among the students as a result of general communications and media campaigns along with change messages from family, friends or community, yet hand washing with soap is not consistently practiced.

Paper presented at the Hygiene Practitioners Workshop, Dhaka, Bangladesh, February 2010.