Día Mundial del Lavado de Manos


We Wash Our Hands! 
Happy Worldwide Handwashing Day, ya'll!

As a Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Volunteer handwashing is kind of a big deal. The Global Public-Private Partnership for Handwashing started Worldwide Handwashing day in 2001 as a way to prevent diarrheal diseases and respiratory infections, especially in third-world countries, through the simple act of washing your hands with soap. Every year on October 15th, over 200 million people celebrate Handwashing Day in over 100 countries all over the world, including plenty of Peace Corps Volunteers.

In my time as a PCV, I've become way more aware of worldwide and national days that can somehow be tied into a Peace Corps related event because here in Guadalupe, we're always looking for an excuse to have a parade, give palabaras (speeches) and celebrate. This includes: school anniversaries, town anniversaries, Virgen de Guadalupe, Day of the Child, Water Day and other random days that seem to pop up out of nowhere. I swear I've seen at least three parades in the past two weeks.

Anyway, I felt that this was my chance to take advantage of one of these celebratory days and promote the importance of handwashing in Guadalupe. With the help of my two new site mates, Ben and Lucia, we led charlas or chats about the importance of handwashing and how to properly wash your hands with three different groups of kids. We worked with the kids at The Beneficencia de Guadalupe (I feel like it's basically a soup kitchen but I'm not exactly sure how to explain it), a preschool in the center of town and an elementary school in Casa Blanca, one of our annexes where I made my first cocina.

Kickin' it with the preschoolers


We traced some of their hands and wrote their names inside each handprint
Then, we painted some hands and they enjoyed that even more.

Handwashing practice
Lucia and me in Casa Blanca demonstrating how to use a "tippy-tap", a DIY device you can use when you don't have access to running water.
Our brave volunteer showing the rest of the class how cool "tippy-taps" are.
A couple weeks ago I was able to join my friends in a neighboring site to help out with their radio show. Every Sunday morning at 9am, the three of them lead a radio show discussing topics related to their programs (environment, small business and youth development). I've been able to help out before and fill in for volunteers who couldn't make it but this time I volunteered to write the script for the show myself and lead a discussion on handwashing. It was super hard and I give my friends props for being able to do that every week because I don't think I could handle that kind of pressure. Here's the link to my episode if you want to take a listen!

I was so proud of the show that I decided since I already had the script, why not ask the Guadalupe radio station if we could re-do it here, as well? I talked to the guys in the Public Relations department and we set up a time for the Saturday morning following Worldwide Handwashing Day. There were a few technical difficulties and some miscommunications but, all in all, the show went well thanks to the help of Ben and Lucia. The DJ gave us some pointers and told us if we ever want to set up a more regular show schedule that we are more than welcome to.

It was a productive week, to say the least :)

And don't worry! My guest writer will be back in action, re-capping the Perez Family Peruvian Adventure soon!

Comments

  1. LobsterOctober 21, 2013 at 1:07 PM

    You are my hero. Awesome work lavandose las manos. I'm sure the kids loved it :)

    ReplyDelete

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