Soap and water at the right moments prevents more illness than anything else in this library, and costs almost nothing. It works against diarrhoea, pneumonia, typhoid, cholera and most of what goes round a household.
The moments that matter
- After using the toilet or latrine.
- After cleaning a child, or changing a nappy.
- Before preparing food, and before eating.
- Before feeding a baby or a child.
- After caring for anyone who is ill.
- After handling animals, meat or rubbish.
How, properly
Wet the hands, soap them, and rub for about twenty seconds: palms, backs, between the fingers, around the thumbs, the fingertips and under the nails. Rinse with running or poured water, not a shared basin. Dry on a clean cloth or in the air.
If there is no tap
A tippy-tap works: a jerrycan or bottle hung with a string to a foot pedal, so the water pours and nobody touches the container with dirty hands. A bar of soap in a net bag beside it. It costs nothing and it is what turns "we have no tap" into a working handwashing point.
Soap versus the alternatives
- Plain soap is as good as antibacterial soap. Buy whichever is cheaper.
- Ash or sand with water is better than water alone when there is no soap.
- Alcohol gel works when hands are not visibly dirty. On visibly dirty hands it does not.
- Water alone removes some germs, far fewer than soap. It is the last resort, not the plan.
Getting children to do it
Put the handwashing point where a child can reach it, keep soap there, and wash your own hands where they can see it. A child copies what is done, not what is said.
