The need for a healthy youth population emphasized
Schools from across the country yesterday delegated part of the day’s activities for students to wash their hands to reinforce the importance of the practice as Guyana celebrated Global Handwashing Day 2010. Heath Promotion Coordinator within the Ministry of Education, Dionne Brown, addressing scores of students at the South Ruimveldt Park Primary School, stressed that handwashing with soap is the most effective and inexpensive ways to prevent diarrheal and acute respiratory infections, which take the lives of millions of children in developing countries every year.
Together, these infections are responsible for the majority of all child deaths. Yet, despite its lifesaving potential, hand washing with soap is seldom practiced; but the Ministries of Education and Health, in collaboration with the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PHO/WHO) have been working to promote this basic safety tip and other important hygienic practices at the school level.
Since its initiation in 2008, the observance of  Handwashing Day has evolved into a global movement that has seen mass mobilization of schools, communities, public and private sector agencies, all working together to spread the message of handwashing with soap.
Through the mass global appeal, each year activities for this day remain focused on children, as they are seen as influential agents for change in the promotion of a global culture of effective hygiene and sanitation practices.  
PHO/WHO Representative Adrianus Vlugman pointed out that some 3.5 million children (about five times the local population) die of diarrhea and acute respiratory complications every year.
He emphasized that by the simple practice of children washing their hands before and after meals, and after using the toilet, among other necessary circumstances, can reduce the number of children who die annually from related diseases by at least 50 per cent.
School Health Coordinator, Suelle Findlay-Williams, told the students that a healthy and long life can be achieved by observing simple heath tips; foremost among the lot is the practice of washing hands to avoid infection by harmful bacteria.
She noted that Education Minister Shaik Baksh and his cabinet colleague with the Health portfolio, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy,  are targeting the schools because they want the leaders of tomorrow to be strong, healthy individuals ready to serve their country.
Several schools around the city and on the East Coast Demerara were provided with informative posters on handwashing, while Geddes Grant Guyana Limited sponsored the soap and paper towels to conduct the exercises. 
Global Hand Washing Day is being observed at a time when more than one million children in developing countries face challenges to access clean and safe water due to poor social and economic conditions as well as natural disasters.
The focus on Global Handwashing Day is centered on children and schools, and the main objectives are to foster and support a global and local culture of handwashing with soap, shine a spotlight on the state of handwashing in each country, and raise awareness about the benefits of handwashing with soap.

The challenge is to transform handwashing with soap from an abstract, good idea into an automatic behaviour performed in homes, schools, and communities worldwide.
Turning handwashing with soap before eating and after using the toilet into an ingrained habit could save more lives than any single vaccine or medical intervention, cutting deaths from diarrhea by almost half and deaths from acute respiratory infections by one-quarter. A vast change in handwashing behaviour is critical to meeting the Millennium Development Goal of reducing deaths among children under the age of five by two-thirds by 2015.