Keeping Clean and Safe

1Germs: the dirt your eyes cannot see

Germs are tiny living things. They are far too small for your eyes — thousands of them could sit on the tip of one of your fingernails and you would still see nothing. That is exactly why they are dangerous. Ishimwe's hands look clean, but germs from the ground are on them right now.

Worked example: follow the germ

Let us follow one germ on Ishimwe's finger and see where it goes.

1. The germ is sitting on his finger, picked up from the dusty pitch.
2. He picks up his bread. The germ steps off his finger and onto the bread.
3. He bites the bread. The germ goes into his mouth, and then down into his stomach.
4. Inside his warm stomach the germ grows and makes many more germs.
5. Two days later Ishimwe has a running stomach and misses school.

Now look at the list again. Where was the easiest place to stop that germ? At step 2 — before it ever reached the bread. Soap and water at step 2 would have ended the whole story. That is why we wash before we eat, not after we are sick.

2Why water alone does not work

Try this yourself. Rub a drop of cooking oil on your hand, then rinse with water only. The oil is still there! Now add soap and wash again — this time it comes off.

Germs cling to your skin just like that oil. Soap loosens them, and then the water carries them away. The rule is: soap AND clean water — never water alone.

3How to wash your hands properly

1. Wet your hands with clean water.
2. Soap them all over.
3. Scrub — palms, backs of hands, between the fingers, and under the nails. Count slowly to twenty.
4. Rinse the soap away with clean water.
5. Dry on a clean cloth, or shake your hands in the air.

Wash before you eat and before you touch food, after the toilet, after playing outside, after touching a goat or a dog, and after you cough or sneeze into your hands.

4The rest of keeping clean

• Teeth: brush twice every day — morning, and last thing at night. Brush the front, the back and the chewing tops. Sweets and sugary drinks make holes in your teeth; water does not.
• Nails: keep them short. Long nails are a hiding place for germs.
• Body: bathe with soap, wear clean clothes, and comb your hair.
• Food and water: wash fruit before eating it, keep food covered so flies cannot land on it, and drink water that has been boiled or treated.
• Coughing: cough or sneeze into your elbow. You never shake hands with your elbow, so the germs stop there.
• Always use a latrine or toilet, and wash your hands afterwards.

5Staying safe at home

Home is where most accidents to children happen — but nearly all of them can be prevented.

• Fire and heat. Never play near a jiko, a cooking fire, or a pot of boiling water. Do not carry hot water. Matches are not toys.
• Bottles you do not know. Paraffin, bleach and medicine can look just like juice. Never taste or smell a liquid to find out what it is. If a bottle has no label, leave it alone and tell a grown-up.
• Sharp things. Knives, razor blades and broken glass are for grown-ups, not for games. If you see broken glass on the ground, do not pick it up — tell an adult.
• Electricity. Never touch a socket, a plug or a wire with wet hands, and never poke anything into a socket.
• If your clothes catch fire: do NOT run — running feeds the fire more air and makes it bigger. Stop. Drop. Roll. Stop where you are, drop to the ground, cover your face with your hands and roll over and over until the fire goes out. Then shout for help.

6Staying safe at school and on the way there

• Walk, do not run, inside the classroom and on wet floors. A wet floor is slippery — go round it slowly.
• Carry scissors closed, with the points down. Never point them at anyone.
• No pushing on the stairs, and no throwing stones — a stone can blind an eye forever.
• Crossing the road: stop, look right, look left, look right again, and listen. Cross only when the road is clear, and walk — never run — straight across. Use a crossing if there is one.
• Never play football on the road, and never hang on to a moving vehicle.
• If you or a friend is hurt, tell a teacher or a grown-up at once. Being brave does not mean keeping quiet about an injury.

Worked example: spot the danger

Mutesi comes home. Her little brother Gatete is sitting on the kitchen floor. The pot on the jiko is bubbling and its handle is sticking out over the edge. In Gatete's hand is a green bottle with no label, and he is about to open it.

Danger 1 — the pot handle. If Gatete stands up and knocks it, boiling water pours onto him. Mutesi should turn the handle inwards, away from the edge, and move him away from the jiko.

Danger 2 — the unlabelled bottle. Nobody knows what is inside. It could be paraffin. Mutesi should take it away gently, put it high up out of reach, and tell a grown-up straight away.

What she should NOT do: open the bottle and sniff it to check. Your nose is a wonderful sense organ, but it is not a safety test.

Try it yourself

Try each one before you look at the answer.

1. Uwase says, “My hands look clean, so they are clean.” Is she right? Explain.
2. Put these in the correct order: rinse, scrub between the fingers, dry, wet your hands, soap them.
3. Ishimwe finds a bottle with no label under the sink. It smells strange. What are TWO things he must not do?
4. Keza's dress catches fire from the jiko. What are the three steps she should take?
5. Byiringiro is about to cross the road to school. What should he do first?

Answers

1. No. Germs are far too small to see. Hands can look perfectly clean and still be covered in germs from the ground, from a goat, or from the toilet.
2. Wet your hands, soap them, scrub between the fingers, rinse, then dry. (If you dried before rinsing, the germs and soap would still be sitting on your skin.)
3. He must not taste it and he must not put his nose close to smell it. He should leave it alone and tell a grown-up.
4. Stop. Drop. Roll. She must not run — running gives the fire more air and makes it burn harder.
5. Stop at the edge. Then look right, look left, look right again, and listen. He crosses only when the road is clear, walking straight across.