Cleanzine: your weekly cleaning and hygiene industry newsletter 11th April 2024 Issue no. 1109
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Global Health leader to launch interactive exhibit dedicated to health and hygiene
Clean the World Foundation is continuing its commitment to hygiene education by launching a worldwide Global Handwashing Day initiative, aimed at building awareness for the importance of proper hygiene. This involves building a permanent interactive exhibit (opening on World Health Day, 7th April 2018) dedicated to health and hygiene education.
Visitors will be able to experience the Story of Soap in the one-of-a-kind attraction at organisation's Orlando headquarters, journeying through over 100 years of soap history with a salute to health, beauty and hygiene, before entering a real working soap factory to learn about Clean the World's history and its soap recycling process. Interactive spaces will house a unique experience that will amplify the importance of health and hygiene.
"Improving health and saving lives requires not only access to soap, but also, a holistic approach that focuses on ongoing education that lead to long-term behaviour change," says Sam Stephens, executive director of Clean the World Foundation. "With a commitment to global hygiene education, Clean the World continues to look for opportunities to educate the community about the importance of hygiene.
"For this reason, we are thrilled to offer a destination to attract children and their families to learn through an interactive attraction dedicated to soap and hygiene."
The museum will expand Clean the World's existing outcome-based hygiene education programmes which began in January 2016. Through its Soap in Schools programmes, the organisation serves over 25,000 school-aged children in at-risk communities each month. It conducts a needs assessment in the target community, designs programming to meet those needs, trains local facilitators to implement the programming, measures progress every 90 days, and works with local organisations to sustain the impact long-term.
"Each year, 1.7 million children die from diarrhoea and pneumonia," says Sam. "Our hygiene education programmes have been extremely successful to reduce these hygiene-related illnesses.
"The programme is now ongoing in Kenya, Tanzania, the US, India and Haiti, and the impact is amazing, with an average of 55% reduction in hygiene-related illnesses and a 45% increase in school attendance. We are committed to expanding this programme in more areas in the coming year."
Clean the World Foundation is leading the way towards outcome-based programmes that directly benefit school-age children, the most vulnerable age group for hygiene-related illnesses. This past week, in honour of Global Handwashing Day, it shared helpful facts on proper handwashing techniques and the importance of soap. Its Soap in Schools expansion and Soap Museum opening in Orlando will be additional ways to grow its ongoing hygiene education programs.
19th October 2017