A pupil taking part in the Global Hand Washing Day at Nabunga Primary School in Trans Nzoia. [PHOTO|Valary Bunyasi|West Fm]

To win the war against diarrhea, Bungoma County residents have been urged to observe cleanliness and embrace the culture of washing hands with soap and clean water.

During the Global Hand Washing day celebrations held at Bungoma DEB Primary School, the Bungoma South Public Health Officer,  John Papai said that the hand washing culture should be embraced by everybody especially children who are at a higher risk of contracting diseases like typhoid as the children easily touch dirt while playing or engaging in other activities.

He said children are oblivious of what risks lie ahead as they just eat without washing hands.

He said hands play a big role when it comes to one’s health and if no proper care is taken many people would fall sick and insisted every person whether young or old to start washing their hands with clean running water and soap.

This day marks the 5th anniversary since it was initiated and they encouraged mothers in helping their children mark their 5th birthdays as well by maintaining hygiene while taking care of them since many die before reaching that age.

He further said that many people ignore this practice and later spend a lot of resources and time seeking medical care yet it could be prevented easily.

The Health Officer led school children in demonstrating how one should apply soap, scrub it all over the hands and finally rinse with running water and wait for it to dry before touching anything as the use of towels by many people spreads germs even more.

A teacher at Nabunga Primary School demonstrating  to pupils how to was hands. [PHOTO|Valary Bunyasi|West Fm]

Elsewhere, teachers from Nabunga Primary in Trans Nzoia west district led their pupils in the hand washing exercise to show them the importance of observing their health.

Speaking to the press during the exercise the deputy head teacher Mrs. Mary Nyambane said that pupils need to know the importance of keeping their hands clean always as a way of fighting the germs which cause diseases.

She said that if pupils are not taught the importance of keeping good hygiene some diseases like diarrhea will continue affecting them and in the long run causing death.

“We need to teach our children the importance of keeping good hygiene by washing their hands after visiting the latrine, before and after eating, after changing the baby’s diaper and before and after cooking as a way of protecting them from diseases such as diarrhea,” she said.

She urged parents not to leave the training and guiding of their children to teachers alone as they are with the children in the most important stages of their lives thus have the best opportunity to instill such issues into their lives emphasizing that children need to be trained at an early stage.