Promoting hygiene - WHO

1 74 CHAPTER 9 Promoting hygieneThe goal of hygiene promotion is to help people to understand and developgood hygiene practices, so as to prevent disease and promote positive atti-tudes towards cleanliness. Several community development activities can beused to achieve this goal, including education and learning programmes,encouraging community management of environmental health facilities,and social mobilization and organization. hygiene promotion is not simplya matter of providing information. It is more a dialogue with communitiesabout hygiene and related health problems, to encourage improved hygienepractices.

2 Some key steps for establishing a hygiene promotion project, possibly with support from an outside agency, are listed in the text box a hygiene promotion project Evaluate whether current hygiene practices are good/safe. Plan which good hygiene practices to promote. Implement a health promotion programme that meets community needs and isunderstandable by everyone. Monitor and evaluate the programme to see whether it is meeting hygiene practicesTo assess whether good hygiene is practised by your community, some of themethods discussed in section can be used.

3 It is particularly important toidentify behaviours that spread pathogens . The following are the riskiestbehaviours: The unsafe disposal of faeces. Not washing hands with soap after defecating. The unsafe collection and storage of questions for assessing hygiene What risky practices are widespread in the community? How many people employ risky practices and who are they? Which risky practices can be altered? What motivates those who currently use safe practices? Who influences them? What communication channels are available?

4 Which communication channels are trusted for hygiene messages? hygiene promotion projectsThe entire community should be involved in a hygiene promotion project,but this is likely to mean that different groups within the communitywill have different perceptions and priorities. Women s priorities are partic-ularly important, since women usually ensure that good hygiene is practisedin the home. It is crucial to take these different priorities into account and make realistic plans. By consulting all community members, it is possi-ble to identify priorities and achieve solutions more relevant to the identifying community members to carry out hygiene education,it is important to consider the amount of time they will spend on promotionalactivities and how they will be compensated.

5 The duties and skills requiredby prospective promoters should also be clearly identified. Existing healthstaff and teachers may be appropriate as hygiene education providers, butthey may not have the time to commit to additional activities or have theskills to carry out activities on sensitive subjects. Other community membersmay perform hygiene education activities well, but may require training . Insuch cases, local government bodies and other agencies should be contactedto provide the necessary training and support.

6 Usually, the most effectiveskills in a promoter are an ability to communicate well with the target groupand an understanding of constraints that cause people not to adopt safe prac-tices. People who cannot read or write should not be excluded as promotersif these skills are not required, since that may exclude older women who arerespected in the community and have plenty of life is no hard-and-fast rule for the ratio of hygiene promoters to com-munity members, but it is generally considered that one community promotercan adequately cover about 1000 community members, provided that it iseasy to move between households.

7 Community promoters can be supervisedby an outside agency or by local government officials, but the communityCHAPTER 9. Promoting HYGIENE75itself should also be involved to ensure that the programme is effective andresponsive to local hygiene promotion projectsFlexibility is essential when implementing a hygiene promotion project. Different community members may need different information and support,and the project as a whole may need to change as it community capacityTo promote hygiene within a community it is not enough simply to providemessages about hygiene ; the capacity of the community to analyse situationsand initiate changes must also be improved.

8 In this sense, hygiene promotionis comparable to community development activities. Building communitycapacity may involve: Operating and maintaining water and sanitation facilities. Organizing and supporting community groups and committees. Helping communities to analyse their current hygiene and sanitation. Negotiating agreements and settlements between development partners. Encouraging the private sector to develop water, sanitation and groups and committeesGroups and committees, such as water and sanitation user groups, may berequired to perform hygiene -related tasks, and it may be difficult to involveall members of the community in these groups.

9 Women, for example, maynot be able to serve on water and sanitation committees, yet fulfilling theirneeds is of paramount importance to the work of the committees. In somecases, hygiene promotion staff may be able to encourage the representationof women on committees, but it may be more appropriate to have separatecommittees for women. When these are established, however, there must bea link to the overall community committee responsible for managing thewater and sanitation facilities, so that women s opinions influence manage-ment.

10 The women may require special training to develop their confidenceand communication skills and to effectively represent women s interests VILLAGES: A GUIDE FOR COMMUNITIES AND COMMUNITY HEALTH analysisBefore a project with a community is started, information about the currenthygiene situation should be collected and analysed. This will help to guideproject activities and provide a baseline against which changes can be mea-sured. The information collected from a project will also form the basis ofother hygiene promotion activities.