Tunisia: NAWAMED project contributes to “Hand Hygiene for All”, an awareness campaign to prevent and control the COVID-19 pandemic
The Global Handwashing Day (GHD) is a global advocacy day dedicated to increasing awareness of and understanding the importance of handwashing with soap as an effective and affordable way to prevent diseases and save lives.
This year GHD has taken particular significance in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and highlighted the importance and role of water in combating and preventing it.
The COVID-19 pandemic provides a stark reminder that one of the most effective ways to stop the spread of a virus is also one of the simplest: hand hygiene, especially through handwashing with soap. To beat the virus today and ensure better health outcomes beyond the pandemic, handwashing with soap must be a priority now and in the future. This year’s theme, Hand Hygiene for All, calls for all of society to achieve universal hand hygiene
For the Centre for Water Research and Technologies – CERTE in Tunisia, partner of the project, and all the NAWAMED project team it was very important to take part in it and to contribute to the achievement of its objective, answering to the “call to action” to make hand hygiene a reality for all.
On 14th of October 2020, the CERTE and NAWAMED project team went to a primary school to carry out a joint awareness-raising action with the teaching staff. The action was organised at a public school of Borj Cedria (Nozhet Essoltane) in collaboration with the administrative and teaching staff. The event had a dual objective. The first was to raise awareness among pupils and train them, in a practical way, in the different stages of handwashing for maximum protection. The second objective of NAWAMED's participation is to inform about the NAWAMED project and to raise awareness about the water situation in Tunisia and the need to save water.
The project team, through distribution of adapted material to school teachers, carried out a demonstration on the performance of water saving equipment at domestic level. The festive atmosphere, the interest of young people and the commitment of teachers to take up this challenge at the water/health interface show that together (researchers, actors, beneficiaries) we can stop the current transmission of COVID-19 and build on the current situation to take immediate action and make hand hygiene in public schools everyone's business in order to create a sustainable culture. The activity developed by the NAWAMED team, consistently with the theme of this year Global Handwashing Day, supports the new “Hand Hygiene for all” initiative led by the WHO and UNICEF.