For immediate release: October 11, 2010

Raising Clean Hands: How WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) Is Essential to Achieve Universal Education

Who:

• Maria Otero, U.S. Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs - Keynote Speaker
• Jack Downey, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, AED - Introductory Speaker
• Jon Hamilton, Correspondent, Science Desk, National Public Radio - Moderator
Panelists:
• Carol Bellamy, Chair, Board of Directors, Education for All - Fast Track Initiative
• Clarissa Brocklehurst, Chief, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene, UNICEF
• Jeff Seabright, Vice President for Environment and Water Resources, The Coca-Cola Company

What: A unique press briefing to announce a U.S. Call to Action for WASH in Schools to increase public and private awareness, action and funding for WASH in schools programs globally. The backdrop for the briefing will be a hands-on, innovative and kid-friendly exhibit called Bathroom Pass. The exhibit will showcase the stories of four children from around the world: Adán, age 12 from Honduras; Mamisoa, age 10 from Madagascar; Nathan, age 17 from the United States; and Sarita, age 15 from Nepal.

Why: As hundreds of millions of children across the world head to school, something critical will be missing for more than half of them. It's not teachers or text books or even desks. It's toilets.

Over half the world's schools lack toilets and a place for children to wash their hands; 50% lack safe drinking water. It doesn't matter how good the education is if the children can't be there. No school should be built without safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) facilities, nor should any student be subjected to the indignity of having no choice but to defecate in the open.

A coalition of nearly 30 organizations, including UNICEF, has mobilized to demonstrate the solvability of this challenge, to highlight the solutions they are currently implementing and to ensure the U.S. Government, the World Bank, and other actors in the education and health sectors do not forget WASH in schools.

WASH programs in schools make a monumental difference to education. In one school in Ghana, Mohammed Yahaya, a teacher, proclaimed, "I've been teaching here for eight years. Before the well we had 46 students, now we have close to 400 students!"

Where: Academy for Educational Development (AED), 1825 Connecticut Avenue NW, Washington, DC

When: Wednesday, October 13, 2010, 10:30 AM Sharp

Click here for media materials, including b-roll.
http://weshare.unicef.org/pickup?key=S8cf8f010-4b81-42f5-8339-5aa78cfc0cd9

For further information and to get a copy of the Call to Action document, Raising Clean Hands, please contact:
• Nicole Rosenleaf Ritter
• Morgan Perlson

Organizations supporting this event include: Action Against Hunger, AED, Basic Education Coalition, CARE, CRS, Children Without Worms, Global Environment & Technology Foundation, Global Water Challenge, H2O for Life, Millennium Water Alliance, PATH, Plan USA, Project WET, PSI, Ryan's Well Foundation, Save the Children, UNICEF, USAID, US Fund for UNICEF, WaterAid, Water Advocates, Water and Sanitation Program, Water Centric, Water For People, World Water Relief