Tackling diseases in developing countries
Our PHASE programme
Every year three million people die of diarrhoeal disease, most of them children. The spread of this disease can be easily prevented by improving water quality and encouraging people to wash their hands. Our Personal Hygiene and Sanitation Education (PHASE) programme, run in partnership with NGOs, tackles both issues.
Teaching children and families
As well as improving local water pipes, pumps and other infrastructure, PHASE teaches children how to wash their hands and why it is important, using easy to understand books and story cards which are adapted to reflect everyday lives in each country. The programme encourages children to share what they have learnt with their families and communities. Since PHASE began the programme has reached at least 1.4 million children with information about how to change their behaviour to keep healthy.
Integrating oral healthcare
Poor oral hygiene can be a significant problem in developing countries, affecting an individual’s overall health and quality of life. In partnership with the Earth Institute’s Millennium Villages Project we are integrating oral healthcare into PHASE. We aim to introduce and test effective measures through behaviour change and promotion of good oral health practice, nutrition and eating habits.
Our goal is to set up a model for integrating PHASE with school de-worming as part of the expanded albendazole donation programme.
