City-based NGO, The Arc Foundation will launch ‘Raise your hands for hygiene’, a project aiming to reach out to school children and educate them about the basics of hygiene – washing their hands. This will be part of the Swachh Bharat campaign.

“We believe that if we reach out to the school children about the basics of hygiene while they are young they will grow up inculcating this habit. Also, if we educate the child, the family too will be automatically educated,” Aparna. M.A, one of the founders of the Foundation, says.

The Arc Foundation has created a database of the Corporation and private schools in the city and it is presently in talks with schools to take this project ahead. With this project scheduled to take off anytime this month, the founders of this NGO are confident that they will be successful in empowering the school children with a hygienic habit.

A set of volunteers are expected to be trained before they visit the various schools. To make this session interesting for the students, the founders of this NGO have ensured that the teaching methodology has a mix of learning and fun.

“The aim is to reach this message to children. A majority of them are not aware of the fact that the correct and hygienic way to wash hands involves more than a dozen steps. We have created posters, and through a song, our volunteers will demonstrate and teach the school children the technique of hand washing,” Baranidaran Soundiram, another founder, says.

The Swachh Bharat campaign that was kick-started by the Corporation Commissioner, Dr. K. Vijay Karthikeyan is gaining momentum. The activity to remove illegal advertisements and also nails from the trees in R.S. Puram saw good participation and the results are impressive.

At a meeting of the Swachh Bharat ambassadors, the Commissioner instructed that such activities that support the campaign should continue and spread to various parts of the city.