Recently in Hygiene Sustainability Category

What do you plan to do -- or not do -- for Earth Day?

Remember how your own mother just wanted you to be healthy and happy?  You didn't need to make a fuss over her, just be good kids! 

Okay, a fuss was okay...and appreciated -- but making a fuss wasn't enough if she caught you being naughty at the same time! 

That's kind of how I look at Earth Day.  Mother Nature just wants us to be healthy and happy.  And stay out of trouble.  So what can we do to be healthier and happier...and just get along?  And what can we NOT do that will make us healthier, happier and kinder to our mother?  Kinder so she doesn't have to clean up after us?

Here are just a few ideas of things to do that would make your Mama proud:

Eat your organic veggies.
Clean your room with nontoxic cleansers.
Use water sparingly.
Tell someone something kind and loving about your Mom!

And here are a few things NOT to do that will make your Mama equally proud:

Don't drive if you don't have to -- and drive a little slower! :-)
Don't throw all that great paper into the trash -- recycle it!
Don't use toxics.  Remember, everything goes into our water supply...and you wouldn't want to drink that junk, would you?
Don't leave the screen door open!  Or the refrigerator door!

Isn't it amazing that so  many of your mother's lessons apply on the global scale?  Hmmmm, maybe there's something to this living within our means, caring for others like we care for ourselves...and being responsible for our own mess!

Thank you, Mama!
Carolyn

Greater measures to improve sanitation and hygiene facilities in international development projects as well as emergency aid are needed. I've even noted that hygiene education is declining in the US...and community hygiene facilities are poorly maintained, sparce, and hard to access by people needing services in public places.

“This isn’t a popular subject,” explains Martin Wolff, Welthungerhilfe’s Programme Manager for Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi, “but installing latrines and raising hygiene awareness are essential if people’s health is to improve in developing countries.”

In its project countries, Welthungerhilfe makes sure that those who benefit from water installations and sanitary facilities are also those who maintain, repair and administer the amenities.

Hygiene includes restrooms, washing hands, bathing, menstrual hygiene, sick care, changing diapers, nose blowing, indigestion problems...and the list goes on.

Our mothers probably did a good job on us, telling us to "Clean up after yourself," but modern gated communities and buildings, members-only facilities, vandalism and stranger-danger that come with urban living have made that difficult for individuals, companies and organizations that want to be good neighbors -- but feel the brunt of public behavior abuses and neglect

The shamefully weak presence of the health sector in advocating for improved access to water and sanitation is incomprehensible and completely short-sighted. Children who benefit from the huge international effort and financial and human resources spent on immunisation and bednet distribution still have a strong chance of dying from diarrhoeal illnesses—the second biggest killer of children under 5 years.

Hygiene is serious business.  As important to sustainable communities as climate change and energy shortages.

RESOURCE: http://sanitationupdates.wordpress.com

Why is it that personal hygiene is such a forbidden topic?  Sexual functions are part of practical living and most families have both girls and boys in them -- so gender topics should be of concern to all adults.  But history has shown that women's reproductive health care ... and hygiene ... have been embarrassing and ignored.  Hopefully times are changing, and we can care for our daughters' needs in a more sustainable way.

Most sanitation programmes are silent about women and adolescent girls’ need to clean and change menstrual towels and menstrual management tends to be ignored in latrine design and construction and excluded from hygiene education packages. Even reproductive health and preventive health programmes in developing countries often do not address this sensitive issue. A recent article in Source Bulletin describes how WaterAid has tackled this issue in Bangladesh.

In Africa, one of the activities of the QUEST programme (1998-2006) involved research in Kenya, Zimbabwe and Uganda on the links between life skills, sexual maturation and school sanitation. One of aspects looked at was how poor menstrual management negatively affected girls school attendance.

The Source article  gives a link to a report published last year, called “Menstrual hygiene: a neglected condition for the achievement of several Millennium Development Goals”.

SanitationUpdates.wordpress.com