Hygiene Promotion

This manual attempts to fill a gap in the current literature on health and hygiene education in relief and rehabilitation settings - in particular by providing the details of what can be done for health promotion in emergency settings. It draws together the experience of hygiene promotion field workers in some of the many emergency releif progarammes undertaken by CARE and other agencies between 1992 and 1998, and the insights of current hygiene promotion theory. The approaches described are flexible enough to be used in a variety of settings. Working in collaboration with the people and allowing them to take more control in the design, implementation and management of water and sanitation systems is central to the aims of hygiene promotion and to this manual. The book stresses the need for a form of hygiene education which fosters capacity-building by not relying on the simple provision of information alone. The avoidance of helplessness and dependency may be critical in promoting positive health as well as in saving lives. Health and hygiene promotion are as vital to emergency relief as they are to development work. This manual is written mainly for fieldworkers on projects or programmes aiming to reduce the incidence of water- and sanitation-related diseases.