Three out of every 10 Singaporeans do not wash their hands after
using the toilet.
This, according to a survey commissioned by hygiene products
maker Unilever.
The bad habit puts those Singaporeans at risk of catching
diseases like pneumonia and dysentery, as the hands are the main
carriers of invisible germs.
To encourage better hygiene, advocates will be going round to 50
schools across Singapore on this first-ever Global Handwashing
Day.
Lifebuoy, a soap brand under the Unilever group, will be giving
out handwash samples to some 50 thousand schoolchildren here.
The effort's part of a global tie-up to mobilise people in over
20 countries -- especially in developing nations -- to wash their
hands with soap before eating and after using the toilet.
If more kids did so, the number of child deaths caused by
diarrhoea every year would be halved to a million.
Promoters of the pro-handwashing initiative include the United
Nations Children's Fund, the World Bank and Singapore-based World
Toilet Organisation.