Water is Life. Wash your hands.
April 23, 2020 by
Wash your hands has been the mantra from the start of the pandemic. But what happens when washing your hands isn’t as easy as turning on the faucet and lathering up, or as simple as pumping out a squirt of sanitizer? While our cultural norm has always included some level of hand hygiene, whether you were taught to wash through one round of Happy Birthday in your head or simply passed your fingers under the faucet whenever your mom told you to, such is not the case in places where water is unclean, inaccessible, or in short supply. Simply put, a 20-second handwash can use more than half a gallon of water and sometimes supply, or rather under-supply, informs cultural norms. .
As our partners make the rounds to communities in northwest Nicaragua, spreading the message of hand hygiene and other measures so critical to COVID-19 spread prevention, hand washing looks a little different. It looks like hands being washed at outdoor spigots and well heads. It looks like hands being washed at community taps and concrete basins. Sometimes it even looks like a team effort. But it looks like virus prevention nonetheless. And no matter the means, it’s a good look.
It’s a look that, in many cases, has been made possible through our Nicaragua Water Project. It is our hope that the increased awareness of water not only as a basic necessity supporting life itself, but also as an instrument of hygiene supporting life in a different way will further encourage municipalities and governments to take increased action to tackle water access issues. Your support of the Nicaragua Water Project has been critical in making water accessible for so many. In addition to its life-saving properties, water brings to many something that we all seek a little more of at this time – peace of mind.
Strength. Human Spirit. Community. #CovidCantStopGood