Diarrhea kills more than 1,000 children across the globe every day. 60% of those deaths are tied to unsafe water and poor sanitation and hygiene. The good news is that when children have access to safe water, adequate sanitation facilities like latrines, and good hygiene education, their risk of water-borne disease and diarrhea drops dramatically. In fact, consistent hand washing with soap cuts the risk of diarrhea by 40%. The challenge is getting communities to adopt these hygiene practices, and that is where Sesame Street comes in.
Sesame Workshop has brought their child-focused, play-based approach to education to the frontlines of the global WASH (Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene) movement. Through a collaboration with Sesame, our partners at World Vision have developed a program designed to change hygiene practices through a child-centered approach involving games, videos, stories, and of course, Sesame’s iconic muppets. The program centers around the Raya, a six-year-old with aqua-colored skin and clothing and hairstyles that adapt to mirror whichever country and culture she is visiting.
Raya provides an entertaining access point for children to learn about hygiene practices, especially those that can be seen as taboo. Raya is not embarrassed to talk about using the latrine and the importance of washing one’s hands, particularly after defecation. By removing the stigma around these topics, Raya encourages kids to bring the lessons they learn in school home to the older members of their family. In this way, the children become the change-makers in their homes and communities. This kind of inter-generational change is what makes our work sustainable, and we are thrilled that Raya and her WASH-Up program are delivering critical hygiene education to the children that we serve in West Africa.
Watch Raya in Action!
