Community Health and Hygiene
Community hygiene is the cooperative effort to bring greater health and prevention of disease to a group of people living near one another.
In many countries, children learn valuable hygiene and sanitation knowledge at a young age. But, in large parts of the world, knowledge on how to prevent illness and maintain hygiene is not widely known or taught.
Community hygiene is foundational to social progress.
Core Community Hygiene and Sanitation Practices Include:
- Washing hands with soap and water
- Keeping dishes and utensils clean and off the ground
- Using a toilet to keep feces separate from people
- Sweeping the home and keeping rubbish off the floor to prevent environmental contamination
- Keeping livestock separate from the home
- Washing bodies regularly to maintain physical cleanliness
Community hygiene is vital to keeping everyone healthy, but especially those with weakened immune systems, those under the age of five years old, and the elderly.
What are the Benefits of Community Hygiene?
Community hygiene helps prevent infectious diseases from spreading throughout a neighborhood, school, compound, office space, and more. Hygiene practiced regularly creates healthier communities.
On a more global scale, community hygiene helps save lives of the world’s youngest children.
Right now, diarrhea is the second leading cause of death for children worldwide. According to UNICEF, 480,000 children under the age of five die each year; that’s 1,300 of the world’s youngest children lost to diarrhea in a day.
The primary cause of diarrhea is unsafe water and a lack of basic sanitation and hygiene. It’s entirely preventable.
In addition, nine percent of the world does not have access to a toilet; people are using the bathroom outside in the open. This creates a dangerous environment, especially for children, who are often playing on the ground in these areas.
In places where people walk and do business, pathogens causing diarrhea and other illnesses pass along feet and hands and eventually to food and mouths.
When families construct their own pit latrine with four walls and a roof and wash their hands after using the bathroom or changing a diaper, they keep feces and flies separate from the rest of the community.
Community hygiene combined with safe water and proper disposal of waste saves lives.
