Health and Hygiene

Health and hygiene training has the potential to save more lives than wells ever could! Sound like an exaggeration? We don’t think so. If a village receives a well, they get clean water. But the knowledge required to remain free from waterborne disease does not come automatically with clean water.

We have experienced first hand, time and time again, a woman showing up at a new well to collect clean water into a dirty bucket. She knows next to nothing about basic hand hygiene or germs. She has grown up in a rural area with little, if any exposure to school or education. All she knows is that this water is clean and she has been told that she doesn’t have to boil it and it won’t make her family sick. She knows this water will contribute to improved health and hygiene, but she doesn’t understand why.

What chance does she have against the odds of keeping this water clean once she collects it and takes it home if no ones tells her about how water gets contaminated in the first place? According to the World Health Organization (WHO), she only has a 15% chance of steering clear of waterborne disease if all she gets is clean water. But when we combine health and hygiene training and clean water together, waterborne diseases are eliminated by 75-85%!

There are many charitable organizations that provide clean water, yet very few who go the extra mile for health and hygiene training. The WHO calls this “a regretful imbalance” and “is calling for responsibility among those who are fighting the water crisis.

Providing clean water without including education on personal hygiene and sanitation is irresponsible!

Those are strong words. And although it is good to provide safe clean water even if health and hygiene training is not possible, it is not acceptable in our minds to leave it out when it is possible. Hydrating Humanity employs full time Health and Hygiene Social Workers who live in Kenya and train local people using our system. The results so far have been much better than we expected!

Basic hand hygiene is so important, but many rural Africans have no idea why. Ritual hand hygiene is even part of the culture, but with little or no understanding about germs and how waterborne disease spreads; hand hygiene is often neglected when the need for the ritual is not present.

Waterborne disease is still one of the greatest killers of children in Africa, 2nd only to Malaria. Waterborne diseases are completely preventable! What we are proposing is a program that includes partnering with businesses, churches and individuals who will sponsor Social Workers who specialize in subjects like health and hygiene, hand hygiene and general health and safety training that we train to go out into villages and work in schools, small group settings and even door-to-door, training families about healthy hygiene and proper sanitation.

Hydrating Humanity is saving lives in three distinct ways, and we are now inviting our constituency (that’s you) to join with us in an organized effort to take on the current Challenge issued by the World Health Organization. Wouldn’t you like to be a part?

Pick the plan now that best fits your business, church or family.