Access to Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) includes safe drinking water, adequate sanitation and education about hygiene. These three elements support and strengthen one another and help reduce illness and death, eradicate poverty and improve socio-economic development.
Sukarya has incorporated its WASH component across all its health interventions. It organises sanitation drives to generate using live demonstrations, interactive sessions and community engagement programmes. It promotes hand hygiene (6 steps of hand washing), importance of safe drinking water, awareness on prevention of water-borne diseases, personal hygiene and sanitation in communities and schools. In the last few months (since December, 2019) Sukarya has been striving to strengthen preventive measures and desired health behaviours/actions in the light of the ongoing Covid-19 crisis
At the school level: Information and behaviour change sessions and campaigns on water, hygiene, sanitation, preventive health measures and other associated issues are conducted with school children. These aim to build their knowledge, awareness and attitudes to adapt and practice correct behaviours to ensure better health. They are also encouraged to become champions of changer change.
At the community level: Community campaigns, cleanliness drives, sessions on water, awareness on water-borne diseases and forming of health and sanitation committees ensure different target groups are reached with key messages. Awareness talks are held regularly and community members are made to take a pledge where they commit to maintaining proper hygiene and sanitation in their locality. Hand washing sessions are organised regularly in schools and slum areas. Unhygienic conditions are one of the basic reasons of disease and malnourishment in children. Sukarya’s project team has finalised six steps of handwashing awareness sessions that cover handwashing with soap and waste disposal in a simple and effective way to prevent infections, diseases and the spread of germs.
