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Ministry of Education promotes "awareness actions" on World Handwashing Day

This Thursday, October 15, marks the World Handwashing Day. In times of pandemic, where one of the most effective measures to fight covid-19 is to frequently wash hands, the Ministry of Education decided to reinforce this behavior by promoting awareness actions in several schools in the country.

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"Every year, on October 15th, the world celebrates the World Handwashing Day. This is a special date that aims to promote this simple, effective and most important practice in the prevention and control of the spread of infections", can be read in a statement sent to VerAngola.

Since 2008, the country has marked this day "with a symbolic act of hand washing simultaneously throughout the country, in several schools". This year is no exception: "The Ministry of Education promotes actions to raise awareness and demonstrate the correct washing of hands in several schools in the country and calls on the communities, as well as the social partners, to participate actively in promoting this essential practice for health".

According to Pacheco Francisco, Secretary of State for Education for Pre-Schools "the school is a privileged space for the promotion of life saving social norms and the practice of hand washing and other hygiene and sanitation practices should be instilled early in each individual in order to ensure the welfare of our families. For this reason, he adds, the practice of hand washing with water and soap "should be a social norm promoted and disseminated in all media, starting with the family and involving schools".

Ivan Yerovi, UNICEF representative, quoted in the communiqué, states that covid-19 has come to call attention to this practice.

"Now there needs to be collective action among various actors such as governments, manufacturers of hygiene equipment, schools, hospitals, water service providers and other public institutions, in order to make the most of the opportunity and create better conditions for hand sanitization," he said.

For Dr. Djamila Khady Cabral, the representative of the World Health Organization in Angola, "hand hygiene is one of the most effective actions" to reduce the spread of diseases and infections.

"Hands play a crucial role in the transmission of covid-19, taking into account that the coronavirus is spread mainly through droplet transmission and contact with infected hands after touching people, objects or contaminated surfaces. Therefore, each of us must play a crucial role in the fight against covid-19, working to create conditions in families and communities for regular hand washing, and adopting frequent hand hygiene as part of our daily lives," he said.

According to data from the 2009 Population Welfare Survey and the 2015-2016 Multiple Indicators and Health Survey, in Angola only 36 percent of the population washed their hands at critical times.

"According to national statistics, every year, diarrhoeal diseases and respiratory failure are responsible for 18 and 16 per cent, respectively, of deaths of children under five," the document states.

The hand washing campaign with soap and water is part of the global initiative "Hand hygiene for all", which aims to "support the most vulnerable communities and institutions with means to protect their health and the environment.

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