Child to child

Amina and her friends sing about good hygiene in Kisaki School. You can listen to them sing online.

Credit: WaterAid / Marco Betti

Old habits die hard. And sadly that's truer the older we get. Adults can find it hard to change behaviour they've been used to all their life, no matter what benefits they're missing out on.

Children, on the other hand, are generally more receptive to adopting new ideas and kicking bad habits. That's why kids play a vital role as good hygiene ambassadors in WaterAid's programmes, as Libby Plumb reports.

WaterAid's programmes take a triple-pronged approach to fighting disease: We enable communities to gain access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene education. The latter involves the promotion of practices such as keeping hands clean and safely storing water. These practices are literally life-saving: The simple act of regularly washing hands with soap and water can cut deadly diarrhoeal diseases by 40%.

Hygiene education takes many forms; from radio broadcasts to puppet shows, household discussions to picture cards, painted murals to videos, WaterAid and its partners promote good hygiene in a myriad of ways. What is striking in many of our programmes is how powerful children can be in persuading others to adopt good hygiene practices, as well as committing to doing so themselves.

Amina (top) keeps the 'tippy tap' filled with clean water, and Shaban enjoys keeping the school clean as an example to fellow pupils.

Credit: WaterAid / Marco Betti

In Tanzania, under WaterAid's child-to-child hygiene programme, selected children form hygiene clubs in schools where they learn firsthand about the benefits of good hygiene and are then tasked with spreading the messages to their peers, their families and the wider community. It's a role many children take huge pride in and demonstrate serious commitment to, giving up free time to help clean school grounds and learn songs about hygiene to perform to the rest of the school.

Shaban Shaban, aged 15, a pupil at Kisaki Primary School in the Singida District, is a very willing member of the hygiene club, as he describes: "We learn to clean the surroundings of the well, boil the water before we drink it and keep ourselves clean. I enjoy being in the club because I enjoy cleaning the school as an example to the other children and I enjoy the games. We clean the classrooms and the latrines. Only the club members get to do these sorts of activities."

Older children are selected to join the club because they make effective role models for the younger children, as well as being able to undertake important roles such as making sure the school's hand washing facilities are well supplied, as 16 year old Amina does:

"I have been in the school hygiene club for four years. We use the tippy tap to wash our hands after going to the latrine to keep ourselves free from diseases. There is always water in the tippy tap because the members of the hygiene club take it in turns to fill it up every day. We have a timetable that lets us know whose turn it is."

School hygiene programmes build children's confidence in getting the rest of the family on board with good hygiene, as mother of two Tatu Recha, aged 34, from nearby Mungumaji village can testify:

"I have two daughters, aged nine and 13. If I try to send my daughters to the old well to get water they always say no because the water from there is dirty. The children know they should use just water from the new improved well. My daughters get hygiene education at school. They say, 'Mama, we have been told at school to boil our water and to build latrines.'"

Children in Rajshahi, Bangladesh, chant hygiene slogans at the monthly children's hygiene rally.

Credit: WaterAid / Juthika Howlader

In Rajshahi, in rural Bangladesh, children are even more vocal in their calls. With help from WaterAid's local partner organisation VERC, children stage a monthly hygiene rally, walking in procession around surrounding villages, chanting messages such as: "No open defecation, no open defecation, it's bad for us, it's bad for us. Use clean water, use clean water, it's good for us, it's good for us."

Ten year old Mithu is one of the 'lead chanters' with an obvious passion for hygiene: "I have learnt to shout so loud from my teacher. I saw that people were getting diseases but I have learnt that it's easy to stop it, and now we have! I had to persuade my father to get a latrine, and now we have one!"

Rony Zaman, also 10, echoes Mithu's sentiments, demonstrating how in this community pester power is about nagging parents to improve their family's sanitation:

Mithu shows off his new latrine.

Credit: WaterAid / Juthika Howlader

"We do the rally every month to remind people about good hygiene. Before the intervention there were diseases like dysentery, now they are less common. Now people are feeling much stronger, healthier and happier, me especially! If I saw someone going to the toilet out in the open I would try and make them understand that it will pollute the whole area. I'd tell them to go home and ask their dad to build a latrine."

Pleas like this from the younger generation are hard to ignore, and are proving effective in boosting hand washing, latrine construction and other good hygiene measures across Africa and Asia, all playing a valuable role in stemming the spread of serious, but easily avoided, water-related diseases. Nice one, kids!