The Ministry of Health under its community outreach health programme, Community Based Environment Health Promotion Programme (CBEHPP) will today launch the Hygiene and Sanitation Week.

The purpose is to improve communities through behavioural change in identifying their personal and domestic hygiene and environmental health-related problems.

According to the Ministry of Health, the program focuses on basic development down to the family level through the formation of Hygiene Clubs. The clubs strengthen social capital and build trust and cohesion within communities.

The week will also combine hygiene and sanitation in schools with food safety promotion and celebration of the global day of hand washing which is usually commemorated on October 15 every year.

The programme also seeks to reduce Rwanda’s disease burden by at least 50 percent in the year 2012 and thus contribute meaningfully to poverty reduction and EDPRS outcomes.

According to a communiqué from the Environmental Health desk of the health ministry, the programme will be implemented in three phases, with the first two lasting six months each, before rolling out the programme to the rest of the country.

The capacity of all 45,000 health workers will be strengthened through close mentoring and supervision of the Environmental Health Officers based at health centres.

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