Water, Sanitation and Hygiene

The CDC is one of the major operating components of the Department of Health and Human Services. It serves as the national focus for developing and applying disease prevention and control, environmental health, and health promotion and health education activities designed to improve the health of the people of the United States. The Office of Global Health Initiatives is partnering with the CDC to understand the current state of handwashing promotion efforts during within displaced persons camps in South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The Johnson Nkosi Primary School is a collection of classrooms, dormitories, demonstration gardens and play space for children founded to provide a safe and free environment where living with HIV/AIDS carries no stigma. Three hundred and fifty children, ranging from 3 to 17 years old, attend the school. One third or these children are orphans and vulnerable children who attend Nkosi for free. The Office of Global Health Initiatives partners with the primary school to provide a series of public health interventions to prevent illness and improve student health including insecticide-treated bed nets, safe water, sanitary latrines, handwashing and a dispensary.

Nidan empowers the poor and marginalized through appropriate community-based and pro-poor participative interventions. They organize informal workers into legal entities, such as associations, cooperatives, etc., thereby increasing their bargaining power with the state and private sector. Their vision is to establish a just, democratic, non-violent society where citizens enjoy their rights (of education, health and livelihood) without discrimination on the basis of gender or class to live in mutual cooperation without any hindrance. The Office of Global Health Initiatives partners with Nidan in Patna, India, to implement public health interventions focused on handwashing and deworming, safe water and sanitation improvement.

Save the Children has been operational in Kenya since the 1950s. Their current programming focuses on child protection, child rights governance, education, health, HIV/AIDS, livelihoods, nutrition, and Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene. The Office of Global Health Initiatives partners with Save the Children testing a program promoting hand washing with soap to pregnant women.

UNICEF partners with collaborators in 190 countries and territories to promote the rights and wellbeing of every child. UNICEF is committed to practical action, focusing special efforts on reaching the most vulnerable and excluded children around the world. The Office of Global Health Initiatives is partnering with UNICEF to monitor and evaluate handwashing behavior change programs in Kenya and Nepal.

USAID is the lead U.S. Government agency that works to end extreme global poverty and enable resilient, democratic societies to realize their potential. The Office of Global Health Initiatives partners with USAID to conduct a study to understand usage and maintenance practices related to handwashing stations in primary schools in comparison to existing handwashing practices.