15OCTOBER was nominated by the United Nations Children’s Fund as the World Hand-washing Day; the first day was 15 October, 2008. With the nomination of 15 October as the World Hand-washing day and under the exhortations of UNICEF about the world hand-washing day are formed as follows:
By celebrating the world hand-washing day, thousands of children from Asia and Africa can be saved from threatening their lives. On the global scales, about 5000 children die daily from bowel complaints.
These children have to wash their hands with soap after using toilets, thus reducing the death rate of children by preventing diseases from bowel complaints.
Habits of hand-washing Primary schoolchildren are the most suitable age group to instill good habits into them. Students of the same age gather in the school where they emulate from one another; schoolchildren are deemed to pay great respect to their teachers. At the same time, teachers set an example for their students. By taking these opportunities, school teachers should make their students to develop the good habits of washing their hands. Cooperation of parents and teachers will make their children healthy, by making them washing their hands at home or school.
The high-ranking officials and the staff of the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Health and Sports, UN organizations, Agencies and NGO’s officials led by schoolteachers from the Basic Education Schools, have held the World Hand-washing day yearly with the active participation of schoolteachers, parents and schoolchildren. The movement of hand-washing activities on 15 October makes the children to perform hand-washing conscientiously and the activities should lead to gain momentum.15 October should let schoolchildren and people know about the advantages of hand-washing and throughout the year, everyday must be regarded as a hand-washing day.
World hand-washing day
By celebrating this handwashing day across the world, personal hygiene and dirty hands tend to be exhorted. Keeping your hands clean is a basic important requirement habit. Extensions of health knowledge and development of good habits are essential, according to health experts.
Practice naturally tends to change into a habit. Health officials and well wishers in 60 developing countries are required to go to their schools to carry out health plans of personal hygiene and handwashing.
Handwashing should be emphasized more on children. Onethird of children who die in West Africa is due to the weakness in their personal hygiene, according to the findings of UNICEF and urge more emphasis on the movement of world handwashing day .Upon analysis on Myanmar people, one in five people is found to wash their hands cleanly after using the toilets.
Washing hands with soap
Most Myanmar people are found to wash their hands after having meals. Washing hands before meals is to dip them in bowls to soak the dirt in water. Hands must be washed with soap to remove the dirt and diseases; few people to have washed their hands and handled the meals before their hands are washed with soap. Most housewives are found not to have a wish of developing a habit of handwashing. Clean hands are not emphasized while preparing the meals.
Parents and their children must wash their hands after using the toilets. Let them wash their hands before meals as well as wash theirs before handling the meat. After touching the dirt, they should wash their hands before using drinking water. These disciplines should be established to become good habits conscientiously.
Things in environments are usually covered with germs and dirt which cannot be seen by naked eyes; touching these germs would be infectious. Therefore, keeping your hands clean is inevitably necessary. People complain about the price of soap; but it is a meager amount of money. If the price of washing hands is compared with the money used to treat diarrhea, the amount of the latter is much higher.
Thus, they should have a clear understanding of a situation. If soap is not available, the ash from the kitchen is said to kill germs or viruses, according to the health experts.
Good healthy habits
People should have good eating habits to develop and they should have a right to live a long life healthily. From infants to the elderly, eating habits play an important role in their daily life. Chewing betel quid too much, smoking and drinking too much could cause serious damage to health. So, these bad habits must be avoided.
Parts of Myanmar National Health Sector include that everyone should live a long life span and lead a disease-free life; these parts are being carried out for the health of urban and rural people. Medical knowledge, precautionary measures against diseases, and effective treatment can help control any outbreaks. The Myanmar National Health Strategy focuses on continuous treatment and awareness-raising through educative talks. As the fruit and vegetables contains a lot of chemicals and pesticides, they must be washed off these chemicals and pesticides. However, housewives should use salt to dissolve these chemicals and pesticides by washing with water to cook and other dishes.
Not washing properly may lead to food-poisoning. By knowing the characteristics of food-poisoning , housewives as well as the family members might be free from vomiting, stomach ache, dizziness and high fever. (Translated by Arakan Sein)
