Encouraging Good Hygiene and Sanitation

This guide aims to help communities to reduce disease and infection from poor sanitation, poor hygiene practices and dirty water. It aims to build understanding of the basic facts around good hygiene and contains practical information on low-cost ideas to encourage hand washing, to keep food safe, to provide safe drinking water and maintain good health. There is advice on improving water supplies and building different types of latrines. It gives guidance on how to carry out simple surveys on attitudes towards hand washing and the understanding of good hygiene and in order to assess the impact of sharing information on good practice.

This guide is part of The Partnership In Local Language Resources (PILLARS) series of guides. PILLARS are designed for use in small community groups such as youth groups, church groups, women’s groups, farmer groups and literacy groups. A trained leader is not required, any literate group member can facilitate discussion. This Guide helps communities to consider improving their lifestyle to reduce disease and infection and to reflect on the particular challenges in their own living situations that make access to effective sanitation and safe water supplies difficult. Low-cost ideas are shared that could be used in most situations, including refugee camps. People are encouraged to discuss and think about beliefs and traditions that may influence personal, household and community hygiene.