Hygiene education is the practice of teaching others how to care for their bodies, protecting their health and well-being.
Hygiene education prevents illness and disease, protects against malnutrition and safeguards children’s futures.
Compassion provides hygiene education and necessary tools like soap and toothbrushes to every child in our sponsorship program.
What Is Hygiene Education?
Hygiene education means teaching children and families how to care for their bodies so they can protect their health and improve their well-being. Hygiene education covers many important topics, including:
Personal hygiene: Hand-washing, teeth brushing, the importance of bathing regularly and the basics of using hygiene supplies like soap.
Water storage and use: Safe water handling, such as covering drinking water, using clean storage containers, boiling water when necessary, disposing of wastewater safely and choosing safe water sources.
Food safety: Washing fruits and vegetables, handling raw foods safely and keeping kitchen and meal areas clean.
Sanitation: The safe disposal of human waste and the importance of using toilets or latrines.
Menstrual hygiene: The why behind menstruation, proper washing habits and the safe use and disposal of menstrual products.
The Importance of Hygiene Education: How It Saves Lives
Knowing how to wash your hands may seem like such a small thing. But it’s one of the many hygiene practices that protects vulnerable lives.
According to UNICEF, an estimated 1.4 million people, including 400,000 children under five, die each year from preventable diseases, many linked to inadequate water, sanitation and hygiene (WaSH). Out of those deaths, 394,000 are caused by diarrhea and 356,000 by respiratory infections stemming from unsafe hand hygiene.
Those numbers alone are proof: Simple hygiene education can save lives. Let’s go deeper.
Prevents Illness and Disease
Influenza. Norovirus. Hepatitis A. Cholera. Dysentery. These diseases often stem from unsafe hygiene practices like a lack of hand-washing, improper waste disposal and poor water storage. And sadly, they claim many lives.
According to the World Health Organization, acute respiratory infections and diseases leading to diarrhea are two main causes of death for children under the age of five.
For children who do survive, they may suffer from poor growth and development due to constant illness, preventing them from reaching their full potential.
By learning proper hygiene habits, children and families can be protected from these dangerous illnesses, keeping them well.
Related Read: How Poverty Affects the Health of Children
Protects Against Malnutrition
The same illnesses and diseases mentioned above can lead to malnutrition, where the body gets too few of the nutrients it needs to thrive. For example, diarrheal infections can prevent bodies from absorbing these critical nutrients. This is especially dangerous for children, who desperately need them to grow.
UNICEF states that tens of millions of children under the age of five suffer from acute malnutrition around the world. These children may be stunted (below normal height) or suffering from wasting (weighing too little for their height).
Sadly, this level of child malnutrition can delay their development, affect school performance and damage their intellectual abilities. And this impact lasts a lifetime, making it hard for children to thrive as adults.
Hygiene education teaches them how to protect themselves from illnesses that lead to malnutrition. Using a clean cup to get a sip of water. Washing an apple before taking a bite. Keeping nails trimmed. This simple know-how prevents the illnesses and malnutrition that threaten a child’s well-being.
Related Read: Understanding Food Insecurity
Safeguards a Child’s Future
Hygiene practices like hand-washing and teeth brushing are everyday tasks we do on autopilot. And while they’re easy to overlook, these simple habits help protect a child’s future.
Good hygiene allows kids to grow as God intended, free from disease and malnutrition. It means fewer sick days spent away from school and more focus at the desk. It means being equipped with dignity and self-worth.
And it means being empowered to become a thriving adult with the knowledge, health and confidence needed to provide for oneself and one’s family.
Related Read: Period Poverty: A Call to Defend the Dignity of Every Girl
Poverty & Hygiene Education
While hygiene education is important for all, it’s especially critical for children and families living in poverty. Why? Hygiene education:
Stops costly disease: When someone living in poverty gets sick, they may not be able to afford the medical care they need to get better. For children, this hinders their growth and development. For adults, it stops them from working to provide for their families, pushing them further into need. Hygiene education protects these children and families.
Keeps children learning: Education helps children grow into thriving adults equipped to get quality jobs and provide for their families. But illness, disease and even shame from poor hygiene can keep children out of school. Hygiene education protects the well-being of children, helping them learn, grow and break the cycle of poverty in their lives.
Helps families make the most of limited resources: Those living in poverty may not have bathrooms or be able to afford cleaning supplies or soap. Many lack access to safe water. Girls may struggle to find or afford menstrual products like pads. Hygiene education equips those in poverty with safe habits they can practice even when resources are scarce.
Restores dignity: Poverty says, “You’re worthless.” The circumstances those in poverty face often leave them feeling unclean, shameful and “not good enough.” Hygiene education gives children and families the practical knowledge to care for themselves well, restoring their dignity and confidence.
Compassion Hygiene Training: Protecting Every Child We Care For
At Compassion, we believe every child has God-given dignity and value. No child should go without necessities like soap or the simple knowledge needed to care for their bodies. That’s why every child in our sponsorship program receives hygiene education and the tools they need to care for themselves well.
Beyond hygiene education, in communities that need them, we also provide necessities like safe water wells, clean bathrooms and even septic systems to support children and families.
Mary From Malawi: Conquering Constant Illness With Hygiene Education
For years, sickness defined Mary’s household in rural Malawi. Medical bills swallowed up the little money she earned. It wasn’t until Mary began learning about hygiene from the local church that she discovered the source of her family’s constant illnesses.
Living in poverty, Mary had no toilet at home. The family went outside to relieve themselves or used the toilets of neighbors who had managed to build them.
Diarrhea was frequent among her children, and she didn’t know why. Sometimes, in desperation, she would turn to witch doctors to try and get help for her children.
“I did not know that poor hygiene was putting the children at risk. Practicing what the church taught us changed everything.” — Mary
After her son, Weston, was registered into the Compassion program, the family began receiving home visits from center staff. They taught Mary the basics of sanitation, nutrition and child safety— lessons that helped her transform her household.
Mary learned how to build a safe latrine and taught her children hand-washing practices. Now, her children are staying well. Sickness has been replaced by stability, dignity and hope.
“From what the church taught us, we have seen the difference. What we were spending on medical bills, we can now use to meet other needs.” — Mary
The basic hygiene knowledge we so often take for granted can change the lives of children and families around the world. That’s the importance of hygiene education and why Compassion is blessed to give it to every child we serve. And you can help!
