Mobilizing people for improved hygiene practices through hand washing campaigns in Nigeria

The level of hygiene practices is generally low in Nigeria. There are no available data for measuring hygiene practices; the best information is through proxy indicator of access to hand washing facilities such as water, soap and basin. It is estimated that 43% of the population has access to hand washing facilities. The poor level of hygiene practices among the people can be attributed to; low level of awareness; low level of priority and funding of hygiene education and promotion; Weak and poorly enforced public health laws; Poorly motivated sector professionals and weak human resources. Addressing the poor level of hygiene practices requires mass mobilization of people towards creating awareness for the desired behavioural change. In Nigeria, hand washing campaigns have been instrumental to mobilizing people for improved hygiene practices and based on the successes recorded, the campaigns have been adopted as a major strategy for effective hygiene promotion.