Hand-washing, tooth-brushing seen as effective low-cost ways to reduce absenteeism
Procter & Gamble (P&G) Philippines through Safeguard helps promote healthy hygiene habits in schools by supporting the Department of Education’s (DepED) Essential Health Care Package (EHCP).
The EHCP is DepEd’s response to the need to improve the health and well-being of pre-school and school-aged children to enable them to improve their performance in schools. Through low-cost preventive interventions, DepEd aims to cut the incidence of infectious diseases among pre-school and elementary students by half, and reduce absenteeism.
In particular, the EHCP promotes the importance and habit of proper hand-washing at critical moments – before eating, after using the toilet, after playing and before handling food. EHCP also includes daily tooth-brushing among pre-school and elementary pupils, as toothaches and diarrhea are among the common ailments causing children to miss school.
A 2004 UNICEF-assisted study indicated that pre-school children are host to at least one type of intestinal worms infection and that 7 out of 10 children aged 3-12 years old suffer from intestinal worms. Good hand washing practices can be the single most effective way to curb intestinal helminthes infestation and avoid contracting diseases such as acute respiratory illnesses and diarrhea-related diseases like cholera and dysentery.
The study also revealed that 97 percent of 6 year olds and 81 percent of 12 year olds have dental caries. Research has shown that school-based fluoride tooth-brushing programs lead to about 40 to 50 per cent reduction in new tooth decay.
With the support of Safeguard and UNICEF, DepEd is implementing the EHCP in 3,116 schools, with 1,002,870 children, in 10 provinces – Aurora, Tarlac, Camarines Norte, Guimaras, Northern Samar, Antique, Cebu City, Davao City, Zamboanga del Sur and Sarangani.
P&G provides a health package consisting of Safeguard hand-washing soap for 3 school years to 1 million school children nationwide. The de-worming is undertaken at least once in the school year by DepEd with the Department of Health (DOH).
The UNICEF and P&G-assisted EHCP targets to reduce diarrhea cases by 10 percent and reduce the incidence of dental caries by 20 percent, thereby improving school attendance and retention in target schools by the end of the 3 year project period.
The EHCP consists not only of the provision of supplies but the training of school heads and teachers on health and hygiene promotion in schools and in the community; the construction of hand-washing, tooth-brushing and water sanitation facilities; daily supervised practice of proper hand-washing and tooth-brushing by children in school; a bi-annual deworming of children; monitoring and research to track the progress of healthy habits and advocacy to sustain support for the program through community partners like parents, LGUs and civic organizations.
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