Global Handwashing Day celebrated by 150 municipal school students on 15 October

3.7 Million. That is a HUGE number indeed. 

No,it is not the bank balance of a millionaire OR the budget of a company or institute BUT is sadly the number of children aged from one month to 4 years who DIED globally in 2013, due to bad hygiene practices.

Students wash their hands with soap

 Imagine, millions of lives can have been saved by adopting small sanitation and cleanliness measures. In developing countries, child mortality rates related to respiratory and diarrheal diseases can be reduced by introducing simple behavioural changes. This simple and seemingly trivial action "HWWS- Hand washing with soap" can reduce the rate of mortality from these diseases by almost 50 per cent.

With the goal of spreading awareness about the importance of this low cost and easy intervention in mind, WHO (World Health Organisation) designated October 15th as the Global Hand Washing Day in 2008. For the last 9 years, different organisations worldwide have been celebrating it by planning unique programs. 

How did we at CACR celebrate? - View this 30-second video to get the gist

NGO Citizens Association for Child Rights(CACR), organised an activity based programme at Nityanand Municipal School, Andheri East , Mumbai.

Students participate in Q&A

I am very happy to share that more than 150 children participated very enthusiastically in The Global Hand Washing day celebrations and communicated their hand wash messages via painting bed sheets and singing the hand wash songs popularised by Sachin Tendulkar. 


There was a discussion followed by a Q and A session with UNICEF consultant Bharathy and Former Deputy Education officer Manasi Apte. Soaps and pamphlets with the correct hand washing steps and the importance of making washing of hands with soap a habit were provided to all the participating children. 

CACR has been implementing the hand wash behaviour change program in 11 MCGM schools with 683 students for the past 2 months. This project is a behavioural change program aimed at students from class 3 to 8.
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Students painting their handwash messages on a bedsheet

Bharathy Tahiliani, State consultant UNICEF India said "The 12-week programme, is implemented for the first time in Urban India. We are providing close guidance to CACR to put in place behaviour change activities so children can adopt appropriate hygiene and sanitation behaviour for a lifetime" 

CACR Founder Director Mr Nitin Wadhwani shared that "NGO CACR has initiated this important programme in 5 locations from Andheri to Bandra and it also comprises of a 3 Star Assessment of School Infrastructure on Water, Sanitation and Hygiene based on Swachh Bharat Swachh Vidyalaya (Clean India Mission) guidelines"

A Marathi newspaper Janashakti carried the details of the OCT 15 event as seen below 

Global Handwashing Day event published in a Marathi Daily

PPH website featured CACR

The Global Public-Private Partnership for Handwashing, which is a coalition of international stakeholders who work explicitly to promote handwashing with soap and recognise hygiene as a pillar of international development and public health featured CACR on its website 

As Seen HERE on the RHS image 

I sincerely hope to keep the GHD momentum going by scaling up this project to more schools and new locations. But I need your good wishes and volunteers to make this happen. If this project interests you then volunteers with us  http://www.ngocacr.com/be-a-volunteer/ 

Hope you join us to make lives healthy. 

By +Richa Singh  loves to work in the public health space and  is the Projects Director with CACR, a section 8 nonprofit working in public schools in Mumbai from past 3 years.

Edited by +Vidya Vaidya , Artist & Director, CACR

A day with BMC students at Kalaghoda Festival

BMC students at Kala Ghoda Arts Festival,KGAF

Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn – Benjamin Franklin

My name is Utkarsha.Sanjay Thakur and I am a part of the NSS unit of Ruia college. I got an opportunity to be a volunteer for the Kalaghoda festival on February 6th by CACR (Citizens Association for Child Rights). Students had participated for both February 6^th and February 7 workshops.

This was my first experience to work as a volunteer for CACR.  CACR is an institution which work for the betterment of children’s from BMC schools and their rights for education.

  BMC schools students from different BMC schools had participated in the workshops organised in this festival that would help them develop their social skills and learn new things. Students were provided with snacks and other things by CACR.

My role as a volunteer was to take care and help these students in understanding the workshop activities. Some were facing communication problems due to language barrier and it was my duty to help them overcome it.

The Tara Sharma Show at Kala Ghoda Arts Festival,KGAF

It was great to see all the students enjoying these activities, learning from it and getting an opportunity to visit the Kalaghoda festival. It was fun an exciting experience for me as well. The smiles on their faces made me happy.

3D model making by Arzan Khambatta & Sunil Padwal at Kala Ghoda Arts Festival,KGAF

CACR is doing a good job by initiating all these activities for the BMC students. It gives them a platform to be a part of these festivals organised in Mumbai, develop social skills by working and communicating with students from schools all over Mumbai and also learn different things.

 By making them participate in such activities, CACR and the schools are giving them confidence to compete on a bigger level in the future.

I hope CACR keeps on doing this work and give every BMC student a chance to be part of such events and activities.

 I am looking forward to be part of more such activities and help in empowering BMC schools.

Thank you CACR for giving me such a great experience!