Home Care
Senior 2 · Home Science
Home Care
Lesson 4 of 4
22 min
Many common illnesses in Rwanda, such as diarrhoea, intestinal worms and malaria, are linked to how clean a home and its surroundings are. So are many injuries: a slip on a wet floor, a cut from broken glass, a burn from a charcoal stove. Cleaning is not only about how a home looks. It is one of the cheapest ways a family can protect its health.
In this lesson you will link poor hygiene to the diseases it spreads, learn how to wash your hands properly and build a tippy tap, and set out the safety measures for cleaning work.
Hygiene means the practices that keep people and their surroundings clean in order to prevent disease. Germs (bacteria, viruses and parasites) are too small to see. Many of the germs that cause diarrhoea come from human or animal faeces and reach a new person's mouth by one of five routes, all beginning with F: fingers, flies, fluids (dirty water), fields (soil) and food. Hygiene works by blocking these routes: a clean latrine, covered food, safe water and washed hands.
| Poor practice | Health risk | Prevention |
|---|---|---|
| Hands not washed after the toilet or before eating | diarrhoea, cholera, typhoid, worms | wash hands with soap at the critical times |
| Uncovered food, rubbish left near the house | flies, cockroaches and rats carry germs onto food | cover food; use a closed bin; compost food waste away from the house |
| Old tins, tyres and blocked gutters holding water | mosquitoes breed there and spread malaria | empty, cover or throw away anything that holds water |
| Unswept, dusty earth floors; walking barefoot | jiggers (a sand flea that burrows into the feet) | sweep and smear or cement floors; wear shoes |
| Dust, smoke from cooking indoors, damp and mould | coughing, asthma attacks, chest infections | damp-dust, ventilate, cook in a well-aired space, dry damp areas |
| Unwashed bedding and shared towels | scabies, ringworm, lice | wash and sun-dry bedding; one towel per person |
The five critical times to wash your hands with soap are: after using the toilet, after cleaning a baby's bottom, before feeding a child, before eating, and before and after preparing food.
A tippy tap gives running water for handwashing using only local materials, and your hands never touch the container.
Press the pedal with your foot: the container tips and a thin stream of water pours out of the hole. Release it and the flow stops, so a few litres serve many hand washes.
Keza checks her family's home and yard. For each thing she sees, she names the risk and the action.
| Observation | Risk | Action |
|---|---|---|
| Water standing in an old tyre behind the house | mosquito breeding, malaria | empty the tyre and store it under cover, or throw it away |
| Leftover beans uncovered on the table | flies carry germs onto food | cover the pot or put the food away |
| Kerosene kept in a juice bottle | a child may drink it and be poisoned | move it to a labelled container on a high shelf |
| Her little brother plays barefoot on the dusty floor | jiggers | sweep daily, smear the floor, and give him shoes |
| One towel shared by the whole family | skin infections spread between people | a towel for each person, washed and sun-dried often |
Tip
Memory hook: the five F's. Fingers, flies, fluids, fields and food carry germs from faeces to mouths. For any hygiene question, name the route and then the barrier that blocks it: washed hands, covered food, safe water, a clean latrine.
Name two diseases that can spread when people do not wash their hands after using the toilet.
Solution. Any two of: diarrhoea, cholera, typhoid, intestinal worms. The germs travel from faeces on the fingers to food or the mouth.
Why does a tippy tap have a layer of stones under it?
Solution. The used water soaks into the stones instead of forming a puddle. A puddle would be muddy and slippery, and standing water can become a mosquito breeding site.
Niyonzima wants to wipe a high shelf. The only thing he can reach it from is a chair on top of a table. What should he do instead, and why?
Solution. He should use a long-handled duster or brush, or a stable ladder with someone holding it. A chair on a table can tip over and cause a serious fall.
Explain why rinsing hands under running water is better than rinsing them in a bowl that the whole family uses.
Solution. Germs washed off the first person's hands stay in the bowl and get onto the hands of everyone after them. Running water carries the germs away.
Remember
Sources and credits
This lesson adapts CC BY-SA material and is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.
