Yemen’s Needed Handwashing Initiative
In Yemen, hand-washing on a regular basis is not simply hygienic, but could be life-saving. Yemen is starting an initiative to encourage people to wash their hands, because statistics which find that diarrhoeal diseases account for 20—25 percent of the 84,000 annual deaths among children under five years old each year. UNICEF in Yemen claims that washing hands with soap and water can cut diarrhoea rates by 50%.
Hygiene in Yemen has been a problem for the country. UNICEF’s Yemeni branch found that in 2003 only 25% of people used soap to wash their hands, and only 17% of mothers cleaned their children after using the toilet. These statistics according to Ali al-Mudhwahi, Yemen’s Director of the Ministry of Health’s Family Health Department, stem from a lack of awareness of the importance of using soap, as well as cultural practices and traditions. More specifically, part of the Yemeni culture is for people to wash their hands using the same container of water. People are thereby unaware of the fact that such a practice breeds germs that can cause infections and disease. Also not helping the sanitation and cleanliness problems is the factor of water-scarcity. Yemen is one of the most water-scarce countries in the world. The paucity of water supply makes frequent hand washing difficult. Additionally, according to Yemen’s 2007-2008 Development Report, only 43 percent of Yemen’s 21 million people have access to improved sanitation.
Yemen’s UNICEF is hoping that Yemen’s participating in Global Handwashing Day will help increase awareness and thereby encourage hand-washing which will in turn increase sanitation and ultimately save lives.
Jenna Hootstein
