Cleaning Up to Save Lives!

Cleanliness is next to godliness... a thought to build upon!

We have begun teaching hand washing at CADIN, the after school program, with some interesting hurdles and hoops to jump through.

The first is simply helping the kids understand that hand washing is important.  You might ask, 'why would that be so hard?' The problem is twofold. The children are very young and so the information needs to be pretty simple, and the children live in an area that receives water about once every 21 days.  Added to that is the fact that the house we use for CADIN has no running water!

Our solution was to make a "Tippy Tap" for hand washing from TippTap.org.

It's a simple method of providing water in a bottle to wet and wash your hands, and soap on a string.  It only uses about 10% of the water that washing in sink uses but is as effective in eliminating germs.

We started with a meeting to teach the leaders the teaching method and how to make and use a Tippy Tap.  We even had some folks from other ministries come who were interested in this project!

We practiced both making the Tippy Taps and giving the lesson.

We went to the house used for CADIN to get ready for the kids.

I dug the holes to put in the two branches that would hold the bottle.

Eva, one of the national volunteers, shared with the kids the lesson about hand washing.

Ready to go!

Eva continued giving the hand washing lesson but this time by actually washing her hands!

The kids excitedly went up to wash their hands!

It was obvious that they really enjoyed using the tippy tap and all the volunteers were there to encourage as needed and then to wash their own hands.

How do you share about Jesus through hand washing?  Well, just like everyone has dirty hands that need to be washed, we all also have dirt on our hearts.  This is not dirt from the ground or germs but from sin which is not following or obeying God.  Just like we can clean our hands, we can clean our hearts too, but to do that we need the blood of Jesus!  We wash our hearts by believing in Jesus as the only way for salvation!

For God so loved the world that he gave His one and only Son,

that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.

John 3:16

Why is hand washing important?  There are many well known sources to answer this like the World Health Organization, the Center for Disease Control, UNICEF, just to name a few.  I did a quick search and liked  CDC Why Hand Washing and here are just a few of the facts:

Not washing hands harms children around the world

• About 2.2 million children under the age of 5 die each year from diarrheal diseases and pneumonia, the top two killers of young children around the world.
• Hand washing with soap could protect about 1 out of every 3 young children who get sick with diarrhea and almost 1 out of 6 young children with respiratory infections like pneumonia.

Teaching people about hand washing helps them and their communities stay healthy. Hand washing education in the community:

• Reduces the number of people who get sick with diarrhea by 31%
• Reduces diarrheal illness in people with weakened immune systems by 58%
• Reduces respiratory illnesses, like colds, in the general population by 21%

Although people around the world clean their hands with water, very few use soap to wash their hands. Washing hands with soap removes germs much more effectively.
Hand washing education and access to soap in schools can help improve attendance.
Good hand washing early in life may help improve child development in some settings.