Hands4health

Systemic change for WASH in primary health care facilities and schools

The hands4health project is a joint initiative of NGOs, academia and private sector entities that aims to develop and implement a comprehensive approach to hand hygiene, water quality and sanitation in primary health care facilities (HCFs) and schools not connected to functional water supply systems.
The 11 members aims at integrating novel and existing low-cost and resource-efficient WASH interventions from the fields of engineering, behaviour and health psychology, gender and inclusion, design, health, information and communication technologies, and knowledge management into a practical user-friendly approach.
The approach will address all stages of implementation, from the assessment of the situation to novel low-cost interventions for infrastructure improvement, behaviour change and facility management. It will also incorporate data management and monitoring to enable a rigorous assessment of the impacts on health determinants and outcomes.
The project work is performed and implemented in Switzerland (laboratory research) and in Burkina Faso, Mali, Nigeria and Palestine (field development).
FHNW is coordinating the hands4health project and performs lab-experiments for various technologies for handwashing facilities.