WASH Messages for World Toilet Day

On this World Toilet Day 2021, we wanted to send you these messages to share with others to use or to use in your work. The Children for Health Collection of 100 Health Messages include 10 messages for children to learn and share on water, sanitation and hygiene (often called WASH).

1. To wash hands properly: use water, a little soap. Rub for 10 seconds, rinse and air-dry (or dry with a clean cloth/paper), not on dirty clothes.
2. Wash your hands properly before touching the T-zone on your face (eyes, nose and mouth) as this is where germs enter the body. Avoid touching the T-zone when you can.
3. Wash your hands BEFORE preparing food, eating or giving food to babies, AFTER pee or poo or cleaning baby or helping someone who is ill.
4. Keep your body and clothes fresh and clean. Keep your nails & toes, teeth & ears, face & hair CLEAN. Shoes/flip-flops protect against worms.
5. Keep human and animal poo and pee away from flies that spread germs. Use latrines and afterwards, wash your hands.
6. Keep your face fresh and clean. Wash well with a little clean water and soap morning and evening, plus if flies buzz near sticky eyes.
7. Don’t touch clean, safe water with dirty hands or cups. Keep it safe and free from germs.
8. Sunlight makes water safer. Filter it into a plastic bottles and leave for six hours until it’s safer to drink.
9. When you can, use the sun to dry and destroy germs on plates and utensils after washing.
10. Kill or reduce flies by keeping the home and community free from rubbish and dirt. Store rubbish safely until it’s collected, burned or buried.

The messages can be used by educators to use with children, as SMS text messages for older children or for households or ideas for campaigns, quizzes or games and on social media. You can download our free booklet now with all these messages here! This booklet is also available in many languages.

The Stop Diarrhoea Initiative

Some of these messages have been adapted and added to by our partner, Save the Children in their programme, The Stop Diarrhoea Initiative. As part of this programme, school health clubs are implementing twelve sets of activities around twelve health messages. These are based around four of the Children for Health topics and one of the messages added is around the correct use of the toilet/latrine. Here are the twelve topics and messages.

1. How to Wash Our Hands: Wash your hands properly: use water, a little soap. Rub for 20 seconds, rinse and air-dry.
2. Keeping Our Faces Clean: Wash your hands properly before touching the T-zone on your face (eyes, nose and mouth), as this is where germs enter the body. Avoid touching the T-zone when you can.
3. When to wash Our Hands: Wash your hands at five critical times. 1. After urinating or pooing 2. After cleaning baby or helping someone who is ill 3. After handling animals or garbage. 4. Before preparing food 5. Before eating or giving food to babies.
4. Use a Toilet: Always use a toilet for poo and pee. This will protect you and others from illness like diarrhoea.
5. Balanced Diet: Food that helps you GO plus food that helps you GROW plus food that helps you GLOW is good food that keeps your body strong.
6. Breast Feeding: Breast milk is the only food and drink a baby needs from birth to 6 months. It has Go, Grow & Glow!
7. Vitamin A: Eat enough Vitamin A in colourful fruit and vegetables like carrots and sweet potato. It makes our body strong and helps to fight disease. It improves eyesight and makes skin glow.
8. Immunisation: Millions of parents all over the world take their children to be immunised to make sure they are safe, strong and protected from diseases like measles and rotavirus.
9. Prevent Diarrhoea: Prevent diarrhoea by breastfeeding babies, good hygiene habits, and immunisation and by making sure food and drinks are safe.
10. Rehydration: Diarrhoea is dangerous because the loss of water and salts dehydrates and makes the body weak. Replace liquids to stop diarrhoea killing young children from dehydration.
11. ORS: ORS stands for ‘Oral Rehydration Salts’. Find ORS at clinics & shops. Follow directions to mix it correctly with safe water to make the best drink for diarrhoea.
12. Zinc: Zinc tablets and syrup stop diarrhoea sooner for children older than 6 months. Oral Rehydration Salts and safe drinks MUST be given as well.

Help children to make a Rainbow Stick to record the health messages they learn! Learn more!