Sudanese children join Global Hand Washing Day

On Wednesday, thousands of Sudanese children joined their peers across the world in celebrating the annual Global Hand Washing Day, aimed at increasing awareness of the importance of washing hands with soap. Sennar state in eastern Sudan was selected to host the celebration this year. Under the theme “Choose Handwashing, Choose Health” children performed drama, songs and traditional dances focusing on the importance of washing the hands with soap, as an effective and affordable way to prevent diseases. Insufficient access to safe drinking water and proper sanitation services coupled with low level of good (appropriate) hygiene practices lead to the spread of water related diseases and have a significant impact on children’s health and nutrition, Unicef said in a press release on Wednesday. “Turning ‘handwashing’  with soap before eating and after using the toilet into an ingrained habit could save more lives than any single vaccine or medical intervention, cutting deaths from diarrhoea by almost half, and deaths from acute respiratory infections by one-quarter,” said Geert Cappelaere, Unicef Representative in Sudan. According to a Health Statistical Report of 2013, preventable diseases such as acute watery diarrhoea (12 percent) and pneumonia (18 percent) are the leading causes of deaths in hospitals for children younger than five in Sudan. File photo: Emblem of the Gobal Hand Washing Day (Unicef)