Hygiene promotion campaign in Tartous shelters

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Hygiene promotion campaign aims to improve health of thousands of displaced children and families in Tartous shelters

by David Youngmeyer.

With support from European Commission – Humanitarian Aid & Civil Protection (ECHO) UNICEF has kicked off a campaign to reach thousands of displaced children and parents in Tartous with hygiene promotion messages. The campaign is to be rolled out at 21 shelters in Tartous, a coastal city in western Syria, which accommodate around 1,300 families who fled areas of conflict.

The first sessions, run in partnership with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, were held last week at a shelter on the outskirts of Tartous. Separate sessions for children and women included the promotion of practical hygiene practices such as hand-washing and the covering food, along with the disease cycle.

UNICEF’s summer hygiene campaign in Syria has reached more than 48,000 people to date in the most affected areas in Aleppo, Damascus, Rural Damascus, Hama, Homs, Lattakia, and Tartous.

About 100 displaced families live at this shelter in an old light-industrial site on the outskirts of Tartous, in western Syria. While some families live in a building, others are in tents or old concrete workshops. It is one of 21 shelters in and around the city catering for children and families who have fled conflict. © UNICEF Syria/2013/Youngmeyer

A UNICEF staff member invites two children at the shelter to attend a hygiene promotion session which is about to start. © UNICEF Syria/2013/Youngmeyer

A worker from the Syrian Arab Red Crescent leads a UNICEF-supported hygiene promotion session with a group of displaced children. © UNICEF Syria/2013/Youngmeyer

A young girl watches closely as a Syrian Arab Red Crescent worker takes a hygiene promotion session at a shelter for displaced families just outside Tartous. The session covered the importance of hand-washing, along with when and how to do it. © UNICEF Syria/2013/Youngmeyer

Children compete to answer a question during a hygiene promotion session at a shelter close to Tartous. UNICEF Syria/2013/Youngmeyer

A boy demonstrates his own hand-washing technique during a hygiene promotion session for children at a shelter for displaced families on the outskirts of Tartous. Children learn when, how and why to wash their hands. © UNICEF Syria/2013/Youngmeyer

A group of mothers attend a hygiene promotion session at a shelter for displaced families on the outskirts of Tartous. The sessions include practical hygiene practices, such as covering food, along with how to stop the spread of disease. © UNICEF Syria/2013/Youngmeyer

A boy clutches a bar of soap he received as part of a hygiene promotion session just out of Tartous. UNICEF’s summer hygiene campaign in Syria to date has seen the widespread distribution of hygiene and sanitation items to cover more than 85,000 people. © UNICEF Syria/2013/Youngmeyer

A girl with soap bars distributed as part of a hygiene promotion session for displaced children living at a shelter near Tartous. © UNICEF Syria/2013/Youngmeyer

A UNICEF staff member goes tent-to-tent telling families about hygiene promotion sessions for children and women that are about to start. © UNICEF Syria/2013/Youngmeyer

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