THE DEPARTMENT of Education, Department of Health and the United Nations Children’s Fund joined hands in celebrating the Global Handwashing Day on Wednesday to promote cleaning hands amid the coronavirus disease pandemic.

In a virtual Learning and Partnership Symposium, the three institutions jointly pointed out that handwashing is one of the simplest yet most effective solutions to combat diseases.

“We have participated in the global partnership led by the WHO (and UNICEF) which is a call to action for all of [the] society to achieve universal access to hand hygiene to combat Covid19, and to prevent a whole range of other diseases,” Education Secretary Leonor Briones said in a recorded message.

Briones added that DepEd continues to mobilize resources in creating, maintaining, and sustaining a culture of hand hygiene in schools and offices through the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene in Schools program.

The Deped chief pointed out that handwashing has been integrated into the Department’s Basic Education-Learning Continuity Plan, which was developed to ensure the health and safety of learners, teachers, and personnel.

Meanwhile, Dr. Maria Corazon Dumlao, DepEd School Health Division chief, emphasized that the hygiene change in an institutional setting needs an enabling environment that mobilizes a systems approach to hygiene promotion.

“[The] key to sustaining the hand washing initiatives and creating a culture of handwashing is establishing the expectation to practice hand hygiene in all settings,” she said.

Dumlao said there is an urgent need for standards, evidence, data, inclusive and participatory implementation strategy, tools and techniques, performance measurement, and an incentive mechanism.

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III emphasized that hand hygiene should not only be a personal habit but a commitment to protect the health of the community and the general public.

UNICEF Philippine Representative Oyunsaikhan Dendevnorov said creating a handwashing habit requires all sectors to work together to create an enabling environment.

During the panel discussion, strategies to support the handwashing campaign were tackled by different sectors, including the Department of Transportation, National Early Childhood Care and Development Council, National Youth Commission, Philippine Retailers Association, and the Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines.