Seminar on 'Clean Hands Save Lives' held

Diarrhea claims 1,16000 under five-year children lives every year in Pakistan, a report issued by United Nations International Children Fund (UNICEF) revealed. A seminar on 'Clean Hands Save Lives' was held on Friday to create awareness among the masses about the importance of hand washing. Around 300 children and teachers from Islamabad and Rawalpindi along with representatives from government attended the seminar to mark Global Handing Washing Day 2011.
The participants of the seminar including UN agencies, non-governmental organisations, civil society and academia stressed the significance of hand washing and to increase awareness and importance of hand washing with soap as an effective and affordable way to prevent diseases. Federal Sectary Junaid Iqbal said that all segments of the society should create awareness about clean drinking water, sanitation and diseases caused by not washing hands properly.
Asrar-ul-Haq a participant said that 90% public toilets in the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad lack hand washing facilities while during the survey it was noted that only 1 toilet was available for 110 children in schools. He said that public should be aware of their hygienic conditions.
Deputy Representative of UNICEF in Pakistan Karen Allen said that for flood affected children and families many of whom were displaced and living in terrible conditions good hygiene such as hand washing with soap is essential to avoid diseases. She said that UNICEF and other partner organisations have reached flood-hit people with hygiene kits, including soap and safe drinking water to prevent diseases and promote hygienic practices. She added that washing hands with soap could reduce the incidence of diarrhea among children under five by almost 50 percent and could provide protection to them from polio and other diseases.
She said the event aims at engaging school children as effective agents for change, highlighting their role in both understanding good hygiene and taking these practices back to their homes and communities. She said a new UNICEF cartoon character "SABU" would be launched for this purpose and the participants agreed to a declaration emphasising the importance of hand washing and the widespread dissemination of hand washing messages.