After finding out that only one student out of 22 in my Health Club at Karima washes their hands with soap, if he was even being honest, I decided I had to do something about it. Global Handwashing Day was the perfect excuse to talk more about the importance of using soap and to give them some to take home with them.
There has been a lot of confusion about what germs are and why washing our hands with soap is the best way to get rid of them so I made these two posters in hopes of clearing things up:
1. I have soap at home (21/21)
2. I use soap to bathe (21/21)
3. I wash my hands with soap at home (12/21)
4. I have a toothbrush (18/21)
5. I have toothpaste (16/21)
Their questions in the Question Box further convinced me that they could use a lesson on dental hygiene and maybe a toothbrush and a small tube of toothpaste:
“NOT every body have toothbrush yes or No.”
“When you don’t have toothbrush you do?”
“If you don’t have a toothbrush and you don’t brush the bad smell will it make you sick”
“If we will not use tooth Pastes to brush our teeth. What is going to happen in our teeth.”
“Please bring for us toothpast.”
Many other students asked what they should do if they didn’t have a toothbrush or toothpaste. A couple seemed to not even know what toothpaste is:
“What does tooth paste used for.”
“what is means of toothpaste used for IN Health Club.”
I am going to research ways to make toothpaste from common household products. If they can’t afford to buy more toothpaste after they run out of what we give them, they’ll at least be able to make their own. One of the kids asked this, “When A Person have not tooth Paste and he/she has tooth brush and salt to clean teeth would the teeth be clean”, so I want to look into that and see whether or not salt can be substituted for toothpaste if there is no other available alternative.