Today 25th of April 2023, we gather here to witness the activation of a campaign aimed at strengthening the practice of handwashing with soap as key ingredient in disease prevention in Karamoja region and Uganda at large. This Campaign is being spearheaded by the National Handwashing Initiative which is being hosted by the Ministry of Water and Environment with partnership from the Line Ministries of Health and Education as well as WASH Partners across the country.
With Support from UNICEF, the National Handwashing Initiative (NHWI) developed the National Handwashing Communication Strategy and the “I Wash, You Wash- Clean hands for all” (IWYW) campaign as part of the toolkit to guide on how activities related to handwashing with soap should sustainability be implemented.
The campaign seeks to strengthen collective responsibility amongst all Ugandans to advance water and sanitation hygiene. Although there are high knowledge levels, the practice remains low, hence the need for collective responsibility. This Campaign is targeting the entire country but this particular activation specifically aims at extending assistance to Karamoja region. This decision was informed by recent (2019) statistics from the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Water and Environment which indicated that Karamoja is still lagging behind at 7.6% handwashing practices against the National Average of 36.5%.
To date, the campaign has witnessed local businesses installing handwashing stations with both water and soap on their premises. The on-boarding of private players such as Quality Supermarkets has been key to the campaign whereby customers were rallied to donate a piece of soap for every bar of soap purchased. In addition, Riham (Harris International), Stanbic Bank and Rotary Club of Naalya have always encouraged the public to join them in donating soap thatwill be distributed to schools in Karamoja region.
A total of 22,000 pieces of soap have so far been collected from this activation of the IWYW Campaign to be disbursed to schools in Karamoja.
Once again we would like to thank our partners – UNICEF Uganda Country office, Quality Supermarkets, Riham, Stanbic Bank, Rotary Club of Naalya as well as the ministries of water, health and education for ensuring that this activation is a success.
Special thanks to UNICEF who supported the development of the handwashing with soap communication toolkit.
