Hands Up for Hygiene!

Teaching hygiene behaviour in Pacific Schools.

This resource is for educators to support the adoption of hygiene behaviour in schools in the Pacific. This resource is primarily developed for a younger audience (upper primary school students), but can be tailored to suit secondary school students and the wider community.

Teaching hygiene in schools can be a tricky subject. When teaching about personal hygiene, it is recommended that educators use the ‘life-skills’ approach. This approach focuses on teaching knowledge, attitudes and skills that help people develop new behaviours and take responsibility for their own lives.

This resource is designed to help educators highlight and teach hygiene behaviours in schools in the Pacific. It presents 6 key modules, 17 topics and 20 activities. The modules can be taught in succession, or not, depending on the school’s curriculum.

WASH education in Pacific communities

Live & Learn Environmental Education is working with local communities in the Pacific to establish ‘sanitation enterprises’: demand-driven businesses that provide sanitation services (such as toilets) to improve sanitation in the Pacific islands. Based on the notion of ‘sanitation marketing’, the strength and success of these businesses pivots on the value the community places on toilets and improved sanitation.

As part of this process, a suite of educational and community sanitation and hygiene resources have been developed. These include:

• Discovering healthy living: Participatory Hygiene and Sanitation Transformation (PHAST) in Pacific communities
• Putting your waste in the right place: A Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) approach for the Pacific Islands
• Building strong and healthy communities: Setting up a sanitation enterprise in your community
• Setting up and managing a small enterprise: A guide for the Pacific
• Clean communities: A practical guide to building and maintaining toilets in the Pacific islands
• Hands up for hygiene! – teaching hygiene behaviour in Pacific schools: Teacher’s guide
• Germ-buster: Student workbook
• Posters/board game/stickers

These resources can be used by schools,communities, NGOs and governments to improve sanitation and promote hygiene behaviour in the Pacific islands.