15 October 2010 (Kabul, AFGHANISTAN) - On the third annual Global Hand-washing Day, more than seven million schoolchildren, parents, teachers and government officials around Afghanistan will lather up, and at the end of the day, they should have more than just clean hands.

This year the theme of Global Hand washing Day – more than just a day – aims to establish the simple, life-saving practice of washing hands with soap, many times a day, as a life-long habit that will continue to be practiced long after the sun sets on October 16.

Global Hand-washing Day partners are promoting this behavioural change not only by organizing activities in more than 10,000 schools to raise awareness of the benefits of hand washing, but by ensuring that schools and communities have the support they need to make the practice routine. Children acting as agents of change will take the good practices of hygiene learned at school back into their homes and communities.

Each year, diarrhoeal diseases and acute respiratory infections are responsible for the deaths of more than 67,500 children under the age of five in Afghanistan. Washing hands with soap and water especially at the critical times -- after using the toilet and before handling food, and after cleaning babies -- helps reduce the incidence of diarrhoeal disease by over 40 per cent, yet this simple behaviour is not practiced regularly.

Global Hand-washing Day shines a spotlight on the importance of hand washing with soap and water as probably the single most effective and affordable health intervention of all. Today that message is being brought to playgrounds, classrooms, community centres, public spaces and the air waves.

In a related development, last month the Ministries of Rural Rehabilitation and Development (MRRD), Education (MoE), and Public Health (MoPH); the World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) launched the joint “Call to Action for WASH in schools,” which aims at increasing investment in water sanitation and hygiene in schools.

“UNICEF believes that improved WASH in schools not only promotes a healthy environment, but also contributes significantly to increase enrolment and retention, especially of girls,” said Peter Crowley, UNICEF Representative to Afghanistan.

For more information: www.globalhandwashingday.org