Learning about personal hygiene through play

What is the purpose of the PHASE prgramme?

The pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) ran a programme called Personal Hygiene & Sanitation Education (PHASE) from 1998-2016 to reduce the number of illnesses caused by sanitation and hygiene problems among children and their families living in poverty.

The project uses games to teach children basic hygiene methods, such as handwashing. A key element of the programme is to empower parents, through the children, to improve their living conditions.

• The project has so far been launched in the developing world, but it has become clear that there is a great need for it in Europe too. This is why GSK has decided to launch PHASE in European countries where it operates the health mediation project "Together for a better health - for us, by us".
• The aim of the pilot project, launched in 2012, is to introduce Roma (intercultural) mediators into the health care system in Hungary, thus helping disadvantaged - including over-represented Roma - people to access health services and to promote health-conscious lifestyles.
• In the international partnership, a Roma inclusion non-profit organisation from Slovakia, Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary is working with GSK's local organisations to implement these projects.

What have we done during PHASE?

The Partners Hungary Foundation has undertaken to produce the necessary tools for handwashing and toilet use, which will be distributed to the institutions in the framework of another project (REYN). In the framework of this project, a storybook and a professional manual were produced, as well as a card game, which was used by kindergarten teachers and nurses to teach children about the correct use of toilets.

The programme can be perfectly linked to the work already done by existing intercultural mediators. The related programme also aims to improve access to health services for disadvantaged people, especially Roma, and to promote health-conscious lifestyles.

About similar projects HERE and HERE you can read.

• Project/Support Programme name: Personal Hygiene and sanitation education
• Supporting organisation: GlaxoSmithKline Ltd.
• Duration start/end: october 2015 - october 2017.
• Budget amount, currency: 6.000.000 HUF