This weekend in celebration of Global Handwashing Day, in partnership with UNICEF, we brought together almost 700 children from local schools (many from our own free schools and others from schools where we’ve been running water-school curriculum programs, providing drinking waterand building toilets & handwashing stations) along with their teachers and administrators, faith leaders from different traditions, social leaders and high level political leaders!
It was such a joy to have Dr.Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank our former Chief Minister of Uttarakhand and former Human Resource and Development Minister, Government of India with us to offer his great wisdom from serving as India’s education minister.
In addition to emphasizing the importance of proper handwashing with soap, we also advocated ardently for the use of eco-friendly, sustainable soaps rather than the chemical-laden synthetic soaps. These eco-friendly soaps are not only good for our hands but they’re good for the planet as they don’t carry toxic chemicals down the drain into our soil, ground water and rivers. And in places like India these soaps are frequently made by rural women’s groups. So it’s a win-win-win situation. Healthy hands, a healthy planet and healthy, empowered women.
As our work continues, we invite you to join us by pledging to always properly wash your hands and to try to always use eco-friendly, organic soaps, and always do all that you can to keep our environment clean, safe and healthy for us and for all future generations!
