29. Hygiene promotion
29. Hygiene promotion
Last update: 2022-09-14
Overview
- You promote hygiene when you talk to people in your community about hygiene and sanitation, and about diseases that can be controlled by following recommended hygiene and sanitation practices. These diseases include, for example, cholera, diarrhoea, typhoid, and hepatitis E.
- Hygiene promotion covers four main areas: personal hygiene, domestic (or environmental) hygiene, water hygiene and food hygiene.
What you can do to promote hygiene
Water hygiene |
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Food hygiene |
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Personal hygiene |
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Domestic (environmental) hygiene |
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What you can do
- Have a conversation with members of your community about hygiene. Include women, community leaders, caregivers and decision-makers. Make sure they understand that good hygiene is important and can stop the spread of disease.
- Familiarize yourself with the ways in which people collect water, store food and water, dispose of rubbish, wash themselves and use latrines.
- Seek out households where people are sick. Help these households to identify risky hygiene practices and change their behaviour.
- Show people in your community how to build simple handwashing facilities, such as a “tippy-tap”.
- Be a good role model for others in your community. Use a clean latrine, dispose of your rubbish, wash your hands often.
- Find out if you can work with local health centres and schools to improve their hygiene and sanitation. You might hold a hygiene session for students or teachers, or help the clinic to build a handwashing station and outside latrine for patients.
Wash hands properly with soap.