Peru Global Public-Private Partnership for Handwashing with Soap

The Peru Public Private Partnership for Handwashing with Soap commenced launch of its initiative on July 18 2005, after an international bidding process for the design of this handwashing campaign. In addition to promoting the initiative, the launch sought to strengthen the commitment of health and education officials, as well as that of private institutions and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) involved since the beginning of the programme. In mid-September 2005, the launch of the mass media and direct consumer contact campaign followed. Colgate-Palmolive Company agreed to take part in the campaign launch and school programme. The effort provides printed materials on handwashing and soap samples for the classroom, and the company participates with a kiosk and personnel to promote handwashing practice trials with the audience at the launch event.

Boga Communicaciones S.A., a cable TV media company, agreed to sponsor the production of a television programme to disseminate information on handwashing practices and promote the initiative. Peru's main private radio station, Radio Programmas Peru (RPP), was chosen to develop local campaigns for national dissemination and provide airtime to reach communities in the three geographical regions of Peru: coast, highland, and tropical rainforest. RPP, as reported here, reaches 85% of the country's population. The campaigns will be designed to reach the economically poorest segments of the population in peri-urban as well as rural areas. The media materials for production and dissemination include:

• Radio soap operas
  
• Radio talk shows
  
• Handwashing contest in Spanish and Quechua (radio promotion)
  
• Professionally designed generic handwashing promotional campaign on (regional) TV channels (with a large viewership in economically poor communities)
  

The radio and TV programmes are intended to involve local, well-respected professionals and community leaders (opinion leaders). A Japanese Social Development Fund (JSDF) grant was signed into effect in May 2005 to finance the design and implementation of the communication tools. Efforts were made in the planning phase to consolidate regional partnerships in the regions of Lima, Lambayeque, Ayacucho, Cusco, San Martin, Arequipa, and Piura, and then to establish others in other regions of Peru to lead initiatives by forming regional handwashing committees with regional coordinators to carry out action planning.

Health, Children, Sanitation

According to a statistical study from 2000, in Peru, there was a rate of 35% morbidity in children under 4, much of this rate attributed to diarrhoeal prevalence - highest in rural mountain and forest regions, with lower rates in urban and coastal regions. Diarrhoea prevalence in children of low-literacy mothers was double the rate of children whose mothers had a higher educational level. Income was a strong determinant with high levels of economic poverty connected to high rates of morbidity.

As stated here, Peruvian government officials expressed interest for piloting a PPPHWI in Peru, at the May 2002 World Bank Water Forum. A handwashing behaviour study, used to design communication campaigns, suggested that a higher percentage of handwashing with soap was observed during "risk events involving faeces than during risk events involving food." Survey participants washed their hands 29% of the time after risk events involving faeces, using soap 14% of the time. Mothers also washed their hands more frequently (33%) and used soap (19%) more often than other household actors. Soap was reportedly present in households, even the economically poorest ones. The study found that mothers were motivated by protecting themselves from criticism of neighbours, relatives, and teachers. They understood the function of handwashing as disease prevention. However, the obstacles identified were the multiple numbers of chores for which mothers were responsible, the belief in the need to ration resources like soap, and the belief that mothers are not contaminators as long as they use water for washing, unless dirt was visibly evident.