How Limburg and African children together learn about hand washing
Thanks to an initiative of Prof. Dr. Edward Huizenga, children in Kenya, Uganda, India, Vietnam and the Netherlands are learning together how to wash their hands to prevent infectious diseases that would otherwise prevent them from attending school. For this social impact program called Handwashing Angels, Huizenga recently received the prestigious 2024 Beta Sigma Gamma Business Achievement Award.
The importance of hand hygiene
Hand washing with soap stands as one of the simplest methods to keep children healthy. Hand hygiene also ranks as a prioritized topic on public health agendas worldwide. 900 million children either have limited or no access to handwashing services at their schools, and a staggering 47% of schools globally lack handwashing facilities with soap and water. Consequently, 1 in 4 children falls ill and misses school.
Handwashing Angels
Huizenga started Hand Washing Angels in Kenya in 2019 with a school in Bondo with volunteers and the children's cartoon story of Luna and the Magical Blue Foam. Meanwhile, the program has also implemented projects with Kindante in the Netherlands. Here, too, hand washing is not a matter of course. So a survey was conducted among the children: when do you forget to wash your hands? Thus, hundreds of children in the classrooms learned the effect of clean hands.
What is delightful, is that children from Kindante connect with those in Kenya via livestreams. It is remarkable to witness 10-year-old children discussing their experiences during COVID. Moreover, they collaborate via TikTok to create a dance and a song to perform while washing hands. Did you know that you should also thoroughly wash your thumb and wrist?
![Edward Huizenga](/sites/default/files/2024-02/Edward-Huizenga.jpg)
Edward Huizenga is Endowed Professor at Maastricht University School of Business and Economics. His key expertise and business research entail strategy, innovation and behaviour change.
Award
The Beta Gamma Sigma Business Achievement Award honors individuals who have made extraordinary contributions to the field. These achievements may span an entire career or stem from a single outstanding effort that advances the field, benefits a specific community, society at large and/or humanity as a whole.
Also read
-
ROA publishes new research on international students' stay rates and impact on labor market estimates
-
First-generation non-Western immigrant women more competitive than Dutch women. This and more is shown in research by Dr. Özge Gökdemir and Prof. Devrim Dumludağ of Maastricht University.
-
We are proud to announce that the open executive programmes of Maastricht University School of Business and Economics (SBE) have been included in the global top 80 by the Financial Times in their Open-enrolment Executive Education Ranking 2024.