Hand washing for health

It’s very difficult to wash your hands regularly with soap and running fresh water if you don’t have a tap.

Now, a Rotary Australia World Community Service (RAWCS) project, Hand Hygiene for Health (HHFH) and SPATAP Portable Tap, is tackling this problem in the Pacific.

COVID-19 has impacted developed and underdeveloped nations across the globe. A key aspect in the fight against the virus has been the worldwide acceptance of the need to regularly wash our hands to reduce the potential spread of the disease.

While this is an easy task for people with access to many taps and plumbing systems within their homes, businesses and communities, it does not address the harsh reality that there are many communities both within Australia and overseas that do not have this luxury.

The United Nations has indicated that some 2.4 billion people, including 900 million children, have either no taps at all, or very limited access.
In 2012, Stuart Mason, a member of the Rotary Club of Noosa Heads, Qld, stumbled across an idea when he picked up a bottle of warm water from the boot of his car to wash his hands and half the contents ended up on the ground.