About 1.8 crore children participated in various programmes across the country to promote handwashing with soap on Wednesday.
As part of the weeklong observance of Global Handwashing Day on October 15, more than fifty thousand children gathered at a handwashing programme at the Residential Model School and College in Dhaka city, said a press release.
In the programme, the children made a promise to themselves and their communities to always practise good hygiene and help reduce the occurrence of diarrhoeal diseases.
State minister for local government division Jahangir Kabir Nanok and UNICEF representative Carel de Rooy, among other dignitaries, attended the programme.
A UNICEF report shows that Bangladesh is among the top 10 countries in the world to experience higher child deaths due to diarrhoea.
It shows that washing hands with soap is a highly cost-effective health practice that can reduce the incidence of diarrhoeal disease by over 40 per cent.
