Handwashing (Hand Washing)

Innovations in Water and Sanitation – Helping People Living with HIV to Access Better Water and Sanitation Facilities

  • Source:
  • Catholic Relief Services

  • Summary:
  • A healthy environment is crucial for maintaining the quality of life of people living with HIV/AIDS, and for the success of home-based care. The WHO estimates that 85 to 90 percent of diarrheal illnesses in developing countries can be attributed to unsafe water and inadequate sanitation and hygiene practices, such as handwashing with soap, treatment and safe storage of water, and safe feces disposal. Proper care requires not only safe drinking water, but also larger quantities of water for hygiene and sanitation purposes, and because of physical limitations caused by HIV/ AIDS, the design of water and sanitation facilities greatly influences effective access to these services. Unfortunately, water and sanitation services are extremely limited in many of the countries most affected by the HIV/ AIDS pandemic.

  • Keywords:
  • Accessing Water Diarrheal Diseases Evidence Base Handwashing (Hand Washing) Home-Based Care Household Water Treatment & Storage Innovation People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLHIV) Sanitation/Feces Disposal
  • Uganda HIV and WASH Integration Training Resources – Assessment Tool

    • Source:
    • USAID, HIP, Government of Uganda and Plan Uganda.

    • Summary:
    • A pictorially based WASH Assessment Tool to help the home-based care worker assess a household's current practices in hand washing; treatment of drinking water; feces disposal; and cleaning of rags used for menstrual blood (that will be reused). The practices toward the left hand side of the Assessment Tool represent higher risk practices that put the patient's health at risk. The practices on the right hand side of the tool represent practices that provide better protection against illnesses, such as diarrhea.

  • Keywords:
  • Handwashing (Hand Washing) Home-Based Care Household Water Treatment & Storage Job Aids Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM) Sanitation/Feces Disposal Training Resources
  • Uganda HIV and WASH Integration Training Resources – Counseling Cards

    • Source:
    • USAID, HIP, Government of Uganda and Plan Uganda.

    • Summary:
    • Pictorially based tools prepared for home-based care workers to use with clients in the household, including a WASH Assessment Tool (to assess the current WASH behaviors to help identify those that need to be improved) and 23 Counseling Cards (covering hand washing; water treatment, storage and handling; feces management for mobile and bed-bound clients; and menstrual blood management). These tools are available in English, Acoli, Ateso, Kiswahili, Lugandan, and Runyankole-Rukiga.

  • Keywords:
  • Handwashing (Hand Washing) Home-Based Care Household Water Treatment & Storage Job Aids Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM) Sanitation/Feces Disposal Training Resources
  • Uganda HIV and WASH Integration Training Resources

    • Source:
    • USAID, HIP, Government of Uganda and Plan Uganda.

    • Summary:
    • In Uganda, HIP, in partnership with Plan Uganda, the Government of Uganda, and the Uganda Water and Sanitation Network (UWASNET), developed training and outreach worker materials based on the principle that WASH practices in the household can be improved -- new practices can be adopted and current practices can be modified or changed in small ways that are acceptable/feasible to households. The materials include a: - Training Manual - Participant's Guide - Counseling Cards (pictorially based) - Assessment Tool (pictorially based)

  • Keywords:
  • Handwashing (Hand Washing) Household Water Treatment & Storage Job Aids Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Sanitation/Feces Disposal Small Doable Actions Training Resources
  • Water and Sanitation Program Site – Global Scaling Up Handwashing Project

    • Source:
    • Water and Sanitation Program

    • Summary:
    • Diarrhea remains one of the main threats to child health in the developing world, but washing hands with soap at critical times – after contact with feces and before handling food – could reduce diarrheal rates by up to 47 percent. Rates of handwashing with soap remain discouraging throughout the developing world, and large-scale promotion of handwashing behavior change is a challenge. Global Scaling Up Handwashing is a Water and Sanitation Program project focused on learning how to apply innovative promotional approaches to behavior change to generate widespread and sustained improvements in handwashing with soap, at scale, among women of reproductive age (ages 15-49), and primary school-aged children (ages 5-9). The project is being implemented by local and national governments, with technical support from WSP, in Peru, Senegal, Tanzania, and Vietnam, and builds on national campaigns initiated by the Public-Private Partnership for Handwashing (PPPHW). Please find a database of tippytap handwashing variations at the WSP website.

  • Keywords:
  • Handwashing (Hand Washing) Small Doable Actions
  • Water, Engineering and Development Centre Site – Water Supply and Sanitation for Disabled People and Other Vulnerable Groups

    • Source:
    • Water, Engineering and Development Centre (WEDC)

    • Summary:
    • The WEDC website provides research to improve knowledge and use of affordable aids, methodologies, and approaches by water and sanitation service planners and providers, and organisations and individuals who assist disabled people and their families in low-income communities maximise their access and use of the domestic water cycle. There are over 600 million disabled people in the world, of whom over 75% live in developing countries. The poorest suffer from inadequate diet, reduced access to health care, and poor hygiene -- each of which contribute to a higher risk of disability. In turn, disability exacerbates poverty, by placing an added strain on already fragile family economies, and disabled people face problems of access to services and opportunities, compounded by discrimination and social exclusion. Despite all these factors, the poor and disabled are largely ignored by governments and development programmes. WEDC aims to help with social integration, restore dignity to the individual disabled person, and reduce the workload of their family members by improving disabled people's access to and use of the domestic water cycle.

  • Keywords:
  • Accessing Water Disabled Patients Evidence Base Formative Research Handwashing (Hand Washing) Nutrition Sanitation/Feces Disposal Stigma Websites
  • Community Health Workers in WASH-HIV Integration

    • Source:
    • Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation & C-Change/FHI 360. 2011.

    • Summary:
    • Community health workers (CHWs) — the core of the community strategy — are expected to mobilize and energize communities to take charge of their own health. The approach used in this Training Guide harnesses capacity for improving WASH practices by having CHWs negotiate small doable actions that individuals and families can take to improve their behavior incrementally while working toward an ideal practice. This approach is more likely to lead to sustained behavior change by ensuring that families identify feasible but effective actions that they can practice correctly and consistently, thereby improving the likelihood that the practice will be maintained over time. It also supports incremental change; once smaller successes are realized, families feel ready to take on bigger challenges.

  • Keywords:
  • Community-Based Care Diarrheal Diseases Handwashing (Hand Washing) Household Water Treatment & Storage People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLHIV) Sanitation/Feces Disposal Small Doable Actions Training Resources
  • Participatory Health and Hygiene Education (HIV and AIDS Focused) Workshop Manual

    • Source:
    • Institute of Water and Sanitation Development. 2011. Zimbabwe

    • Summary:
    • The objective of the ZIMWASH project is to strengthen the capacity of civil society and local government in Zimbabwe to provide sustainable integrated water, sanitation and hygiene services that address the needs of the rural poor, especially those of people infected and affected by HIV/AIDS. It was against this background that a training of trainers workshop on Participatory Health and Hygiene Education (focusing on HIV and AIDS) was conducted in Hwange District. This manual provides the schedule and training materials for the five-day workshop.

  • Keywords:
  • Handwashing (Hand Washing) Household Water Treatment & Storage People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLHIV) Sanitation/Feces Disposal Training Resources
  • Summary of WaterAid’s Work on HIV/AIDS: Equity and Inclusion – Key Lessons

    • Source:
    • WaterAid. 2011.

    • Summary:
    • Despite people living with HIV and AIDS having an increased need of access to WASH, limited progress has been made in terms of research, integrated programming and joint-advocacy regarding the crossover between WASH and HIV/AIDS. There is a clear need to investigate this link further. This briefing note summarises WaterAid’s work in this area, the key lessons learned and recommendations for the future.

  • Keywords:
  • Accessing Water Best Practices and Lessons Learned Evidence Base Handwashing (Hand Washing) People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLHIV) Sanitation/Feces Disposal
  • Access to Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for People Living with HIV and AIDS: A Cross-Sectional Study in Nepal

    • Source:
    • WaterAid in Nepal. 2010.

    • Summary:
    • The main objective of the study was to increase the understanding of PLHAs’ access to WASH and its impact on their daily lives in order to inform the health, HIV/AIDS and WASH sectors of the various issues involved. Specifically, the study aimed to: - Assess the prevailing knowledge, opinions and practices of WASH amongst PLHA. - Learn about the experiences of PLHA with regards to their access to WASH and factors associated with it. - Gather views of PLHA on WASH and its link to their social lives and health. - Highlight the need for cross-sector debate and efforts to address the WASH issues for PLHA within the health, HIV/AIDS and WASH sectors.

  • Keywords:
  • Accessing Water Evidence Base Handwashing (Hand Washing) People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLHIV) Sanitation/Feces Disposal Stigma