October 1, 2020

By: Aarin Palomares, Global Handwashing Partnership

Every year, Global Handwashing Day (October 15) serves as an opportunity to increase awareness and understanding of handwashing with soap as an effective and affordable way to prevent diseases and save lives. The cross-cutting benefits of handwashing are further highlighted in the context of COVID-19. More than ever, it is important to sustain handwashing practices now and in the future.

Making hand hygiene available and accessible to all requires a multi-faceted, society-wide approach. The 2020 Global Handwashing Day theme is “Hand Hygiene for All,” following the recent global initiative calling on all of society to scale up hand hygiene through increased political leadership, strengthening the enabling environment, and a robust supply and demand for hand hygiene facilities and supplies. No matter your role, you can celebrate Global Handwashing Day. Here’s how you can get involved:

Plan an event or campaign. It’s not too late to plan a Global Handwashing Day celebration. Use resources from our “Take Action” tab to plan a socially distanced in-person event or virtual campaign. Be sure to submit your Global Handwashing Day plans here.

Join GHP-hosted events. Don’t have time to plan an event? Join one of ours! This year, the Global Handwashing Partnership has a series of events throughout the month of October to celebrate handwashing. Starting on October 1st, we will be hosting a Handwashing Thursday series, discussing specific handwashing topics related to our upcoming publication: The Handwashing Handbook. Register for the Handwashing Thursday series here.

The Global Handwashing Partnership and Hand Hygiene for All initiative are also hosting a Global Handwashing Day high-level event. Be sure to keep up with us on social media – @HandwashingSoap on Twitter and Global Handwashing Day on Facebook – for registration details coming soon.

Share your work through social media or on our online community forum. Use our resources to connect with other Global Handwashing Day celebrants and share your commitment for Hand Hygiene for All virtually. Visit our social media and community forum pages to share messages and read what others are doing. Use #GlobalHandwashingDay and #HandHygieneforAll in your posts to keep up with the handwashing conversations around the world!

This Global Handwashing Day, let’s work together to achieve hand hygiene for all. For more information, visit www.globalhandwashing.org.

Category: Community Forum