Saturday 15 October is Global Handwashing Day.
Handwashing with soap is the most effective and inexpensive way to prevent diarrhoea and other infectious illnesses that kill millions of children in developing countries every year.
Making handwashing with soap before eating and after using the toilet a habit could save more lives than any single vaccine or medical intervention.
These photos show children from all over the world learning about the importance of handwashing.
In Peru, a caregiver helps a girl wash her hands with soap in a early childhood development centre, in Ventanilla, outside the capital Lima.
© UNICEF/NYHQ2010-2088/Susan Markisz
In Haiti in 2010, a girl washes her hands near a UNICEF tent in the Dei Gloria School, in central Port-au-Prince. She and other students have participated in cholera-prevention lessons.
© UNICEF/NYHQ2010-2632/Roger LeMoyne
In the Central Africa Republic in 2008, a child holds out a bar of soap. UNICEF distributed soap as part of a national immunisation campaign.
© UNICEF/NYHQ2008-1510/Pierre Holtz
In Sri Lanka, school girls wash their hands with soap and water at individual sinks at K.M. Vivehananda Vidalayam School in Eastern Province.
© UNICEF/NYHQ2009-2144/Tom Pietrasik
(Left-right) Jemal Iremadze (11), Akaki Kheladze (12) Irina Romanchenko (10), and Nana Sarishvili (10) wash their hands at the children’s home in the village of Kokhnari, Georgia.
© UNICEF/NYHQ2010-3029/Giacomo Pirozzi
In Haiti in 2010, a child washes her hands during educational activities held for Global Handwashing day at a refugee camp in Port au Prince.
© UNICEF/HTIA2010-00590/Marco Dormino
In Vietnam, 10-year-old Lu Thi Dung and other students wash their hands with soap and water at Ban Pho Primary School in remote Lao Cai Province. The UNICEF-supported school promotes hygiene education and other child-friendly activities in a safe learning environment, and includes classes taught in the children’s indigenous language.
© UNICEF/NYHQ2009-0225/Josh Estey
In Mali, boys wash their hands at a handwashing station outside the Fatao primary school in the village of Fatao.
© UNICEF/MLIA2010-00665/Olivier Asselin
Boys play in the safe water being pumped through a large hose in Aceh Province on Sumatra Island, Indonesia. The school was severely damaged in the tsunami and most of its staff and students killed. It was rebuilt with UNICEF support.
© UNICEF/NYHQ2009-1894/Josh Estey
