Health and hygiene program reaches 88 rural schools

Procter & Gamble (P&G) Greater China President Stevie Wong (left) and Vice Minister of Health Huang Jiefa kick off Global Hand Washing Day at the International Health and Hygiene Symposium. Sponsored by Safeguard, the symposium was held this month in Beijing. File Photo

Hand washing remains one of the simplest and most cost-effective interventions against preventable illnesses.

Promoting better hygiene habits to enhance the quality of living was the focus of the third International Health and Hygiene Symposium.

The two-day event was held in Beijing this month and sponsored by Safeguard, a well-known brand of US-based Procter & Gamble Co.

"Given the proven life-saving benefits of hand washing with soap, it needs to be widely promoted," said Richard Chen, president of the Safeguard Health Research Institute.

"And we will continue doing it in China," said Chen, whose organization is leading a series of social causes for the company.

More than 150 officials, experts and representatives of global health-related organizations such as the United Nations Children Fund, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Red Cross Society attended the symposium.

"We believe effective education and intervention measures can improve the health, well-being and economic productivity of the population," Vice Minister of Health Huang Jiefu told the symposium.

There were three major topics at the meeting:

*The positive long-term effects of early hygiene intervention on child development and infectious disease prevention;

*Public-private partnerships to implement large-scale hygiene education programs to protect children's health, and

*Measuring and evaluating large-scale hygiene education programs.

Symposium experts said many common diseases such as diarrhea, dermatitis and gastroenteritis are closely related to personal hygiene habits, such as hand washing.

About 5.5 million deaths are caused by diarrhea and respiratory infections around the world each year.

Of those deaths, 3.5 million are children under the age of 5, the experts said.

The Safeguard Health Research Institute is promoting proper hand washing methods and hygiene education for children in rural China through the Safeguard Health Great Wall project. The project has reached 88 rural schools.

The principal and students of Karlheinz Cless Hope School in Hebei province, one of those 88 rural schools, attended the symposium.

They shared what they had learned through the Safeguard health education program.

(China Daily 08/31/2009 page8)