Hands4health, FHNW School of Life Sciences

In 2019, it was estimated that over 45% of primary healthcare facilities and 50% of schools in low- and middle-income countries did not have access to handwashing facilities, basic sanitation, and water supply systems (Joint Monitoring Programme Global Baseline Report).

Proper and frequent hand hygiene is one of the most important measures for preventing the transmission of diarrheal diseases, respiratory diseases, and emerging infections. In the context of complex crises, primary health care plays a crucial role in the prevention and management of serious communicable diseases, as the COVID-19 pandemic has shown. During disease outbreaks, healthcare workers, nursing staff, and patients in primary healthcare facilities, as well as children and teachers in schools, are particularly vulnerable to disease transmission. Water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) are essential for maintaining a hygienic environment and preventing disease transmission in both healthcare 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. The project covers 80 health facilities and schools and targets 97,000 beneficiaries. The project activities are divided into eight work packages.