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PHASE – Personal Hygiene And Sanitation Education

Every year three million people globally die of diarrhoeal disease, most of them children. It’s one of the world’s biggest killers, yet one of the most easily preventable.

To address this, we developed PHASE; a simple hand-washing programme which teaches children how to reduce the spread of infection.

By working with our PHASE partners the programme has significantly reduced diarrhoea-related diseases and improved children’s overall health. Our partners include: non-government organisations (NGOs) such as AMREF (African Medical and Research Foundation), Save the Children, Millennium Villages Project, Plan International, Pratham and Ministries of Health and Education.

We launched PHASE in Kenya in 1998. It has since been introduced in Bangladesh, Bolivia, Brazil, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Malawi, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, Philippines, Senegal, Tajikistan, Uganda, UK and Zambia . It works in variety of settings both rural and urban including alums in Nairobi, Mumbai and Rio de Janeiro.

With our support PHASE is reaching over one million school children worldwide.

PHASE educational materials – making learning fun

The educational materials used in PHASE are simple and effective. They include cloth books and story cards which are adapted to reflect everyday lives in each country. These show the importance of basic personal hygiene.

Teachers and community leaders are then given specialist training to deliver the programme in schools. The children are encouraged to share what they have learnt with their families and the wider community.

Healthy children – creating brighter futures

Children suffering from diarrhoeal illnesses miss a significant number of school days. However schools which have adopted PHASE have seen a drop in pupil absence due to ill health, ensuring a brighter future for them. 

PHASE has helped transform basic sanitation facilities in schools. The number of latrines and the availability of clean water have increased, whilst days lost to sickness have decreased.

Pumps and pipes – improving the local infrastructure

PHASE has had a far-reaching effect on local communities as the newly acquired knowledge is used to improve the sanitation facilities in the villages and their homes.

Examples include:

• Hand washing and separate toilet facilities for boys and girls are now provided in many participating schools.
• Water collection has improved through the construction of boreholes, resulting in less water being collected from contaminated streams and rivers.
• Schools have built new kitchens supplying children with meals prepared in a hygienic environment.

From local adoption to global expansion

By working with our partners we have helped create a closer connection between schools, families and local communities. Many of the pilot schemes have been extended by the local Ministry of Health and Education, enabling PHASE to reach a wider audience – and in some cases they have been taken up nationally.

Examples include:

• In Peru PHASE was adopted nationally in 2003, reaching all 1,200 primary schools
• In Zambia, we are working with the Ministry of Education to enable other government ministries and NGOs to adapt the materials to support the National Health and Nutrition programme
• In Bangladesh a national working group for School Health and Nutrition (SHN) has been created. Save the Children was asked to take the lead in this group and is now in a position to advocate the national adoption of PHASE strategies within a SHN programme

The map below shows the countries where PHASE has been implemented.

For more detailed information download the PHASE 2007 brochure (PDF 0.5Mb).