Getting Hands Clean Where it Matters Most – Hand Hygiene Product Innovation for the Poor

Purpose

Bear Valley Ventures is investigating how to radically improve hand hygiene habits in India, through product innovation. Clean Hands Inc (CHI) develops products for the urban poor that can be used by households with substandard or no sanitation.

Activities

Bear Valley Ventures, a grantee of USAID’s Development Innovation Ventures (DIV) program, is investigating how to radically improve hand hygiene habits in India, through product innovation. Bear Valley and partners created Clean Hands Inc (link is external) (CHI) to develop new products for the urban poor that can be used by households with substandard or no sanitation and constrained access to water. With support from DIV, they have launched their pilot.

Where did the inspiration for your approach come from?
The evidence that improved hand hygiene can have a positive impact on health is clear and there’s increasing interest globally in promoting handwashing with soap. But in the settings we are interested in – urban slums – there are many practical reasons why soap may not always be the best solution. Reasons like water being a valued resource people don’t want to waste and soaps lack of portability when people go to the toilet outside the home.

Countries of activity

Location of main activity

Further information

This project is funded under the USAID DIV scheme.

Contact information

Walter Gibson
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Filter tags

Behaviour change East Asia & Pacific Europe & Central Asia Health and hygiene Practitioners Private sector, including social enterprises Specific to one or several countries United States government Urban informal settlements (slums)

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