Creating ‘Hand Washing Champions’ in Celebration of Global Handwashing Day

Each year on October 15th, over 200 million people in over 100 countries take part in celebrations to mark Global Handwashing Day. Once again, Deb Group is heavily involved in this day of advocacy, which promotes handwashing with soap as an easy, effective, and affordable way to prevent infections and save lives.

First held in 2008, Global Handwashing Day is designed to support a global and local handwashing culture, shine a spotlight on the state of handwashing around the world, and raise awareness about the benefits of the practice. The day is endorsed by a wide array of governments, international institutions, civil society organizations, NGOs, private companies, and individuals.

This year’s theme, “Make Handwashing a Habit!” highlights the importance of making hand washing as a ritual behavior. To be effective, hand hygiene needs to occur regularly at key times, such as after using the washroom or before contact with food.

Deb is encouraging elementary schools in the United States to inspire their students to become "Hand Washing Champions", with activities and lessons aimed at making the hand washing procedure at school fun, engaging, and memorable.

Throughout the next few months, Deb will be running a national "Happy Hands Contest", where students are encouraged to design their own soap dispensers and enter their creations into a competition. The winning student designs will be announced in January. Furthermore the winning design will be reproduced on a custom dispenser, which Deb will supply to the school free of charge across all their washrooms.

“Global Handwashing Day is a fantastic opportunity for people around the world to come together in celebration and support of better hand hygiene,” said Isabelle Faivre, Vice President of Marketing, Deb North America. “We are thrilled to be working with schools in the United States to support their efforts to make handwashing a daily routine for their students. Encouraging children from an early age and getting them into the habit of washing their hands as part of their school day will help ensure that this practice becomes part of their lifelong routine.”

Deb is working towards behavior change in schools with a range of brightly colored and attractive soap dispensers, which are designed to help engage children in the hand washing process. Dispensing systems are more hygienic, economical and environmentally-preferable than bar soap or bulk fill systems, and easy to operate for children.

In addition to dispensers and a comprehensive range of skin care products, Deb also provides schools with a range of training and educational materials to ensure hand hygiene compliance is adhered to in educational institutions around the country.