Global Handwashing Day underscored that handwashing with soap is the most effective way of preventing diarrheal and acute respiratory disease, while the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) emphasized handwashing as critical in the battle against Ebola in West Africa.
Most activities around the world focused on promoting handwashing to school children.
15 October 2014: Global Handwashing Day underscored that handwashing with soap is the most effective way of preventing diarrheal and acute respiratory disease, while the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) emphasized handwashing as critical in the battle against Ebola in West Africa. Most activities around the world focused on promoting handwashing to school children, such as through attempts to break the Guinness Book of World Records record for most people washing their hands at the same time.
UNICEF used the day combat misperceptions and emphasize handwashing as one of many measures critical to fighting Ebola through distribution of personal protective equipment, bleach and 1.5 million bars of soap in Sierra Leone and millions in Liberia and Guinea. The day, which has been held annually since 2008, is organized by the Global Public-Private Partnership (PPP) for Handwashing (GPPPH) and focuses on promoting handwashing among children in order to develop ingrained habits of handwashing before eating and after using the toilet.
The GPPPH is made up of Colgate-Palmolive, FHI 360, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Proctor & Gamble, The Water and Sanitation Program, the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC), the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Unilever, the State University of New York at Buffalo, and USAID. [GPPPH Global Handwashing Day Website] [US Center for Disease Control (CDC) Global Handwashing Day Website] [UN Press Release]