Why Hygiene ?
Research: It is no secret that when hygiene is poor, one’s overall health, whether it be physical or mental, deteriorates drastically. In fact, according to the World Health Organization, poor hygiene and sanitation not only causes disease but also inhibits social and economic development. However, even though hygiene is such a mundane yet vital habit that one should have, it is arguably one of the most forgotten issues regarding poverty. Almost a third of the low-income population is unable to use and afford hygiene products properly, and a whopping 73% have to cut back on other basic needs to afford hygiene products. Additionally, the SNAP program (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), which is used to cover grocery items, does not cover hygiene products. This includes dish soap, body wash, shampoo, toothpaste, feminine products, hygiene products, etc. Even though hygiene items are technically considered non perishable, many food banks do not provide them either since the costs can cause financial strain. As a result, we chose to base our campaign on the importance of hygiene education while trying to find a way to provide these less thought-of items to underprivileged families within our community, state, and even globally.
Purpose
One of the most defining characteristics of our community is that each and every single person comes from a very diverse cultural background. As humans, culture plays a significant role in dictating our lifestyles and decisions. Who we are, what we do, and how we do things are all rooted in our culture. As a result of this, it is no surprise that there is an emotional significance when it comes to our heritage. Our campaign utilizes this by bringing together our multicultural community and encouraging them to support our cause so that they can impact the lives of people who share similar backgrounds but do not have the same liberties regarding hygiene. By instilling a connection between our community and those we are trying to help, we can touch lives and make an impactful difference in our cause of health and hygiene education
Why we selected our campaign:
We initially selected Hygiene Education as the main idea of our community awareness event because our team is highly passionate about spreading knowledge and teaching people while influencing and enhancing the community’s general well-being. We melded the two together and found our topic, Hygiene Education. Although keeping up with basic hygiene can seem very ordinary and something we do without thinking about it, many underprivileged communities do not always share that right. As a result, we made it our goal to educate underprivileged communities (not limited to, but we mostly reached children) on the importance of keeping up with hygiene while also offering the resources so they can do so.
Goals and Objectives:
Our goal is to educate people on the significance of health and hygiene while spreading awareness for the less privileged so they can also access hygiene products to practice a healthy lifestyle. To achieve this goal, we have a couple of objectives. Our first objective is to implement comprehensive health hygiene awareness programs. Secondly, we want to provide accessible education about the topic. Our final objective was to distribute essential hygiene products to improve the overall well-being of the less privileged since, with the resources available, it would be possible to apply the practices.
Publicity and Marketing:
For our campaign’s publicity, we used social media like Instagram to help promote awareness among our target audience. We selected Instagram for our Community Awareness Health Hygiene campaign because of its extensive appeal, particularly among younger populations who are critical in promoting behavioral change. Instagram’s visually oriented platform enables us to deliver compelling and shareable material, promoting community engagement and adopting healthy hygiene practices. We want to expand to other social media platforms like TikTok to achieve our goals further. Additionally, we utilized communication apps such as WhatsApp to reach a broader community span, including older adults and those who may not have access to other social media. We also used word-of-mouth to inform close friends and family about our cause and events so they could support us. Finally, we created flyers (shown below) and passed those out to people nearby so they could stop by at our events.
Our very first post was an “About us” post. We chose to do this because an engaging “About Us” post is critical for our health hygiene community awareness campaign since it gives our purpose a personal touch, generating trust and credibility. We established a feeling of connection by sharing our team’s enthusiasm, experience, and devotion, pushing individuals to actively join and support the cause of enhanced health hygiene in our community.
Our second post was about our community/neighborhood donation drive. We sent this post out on Instagram and WhatsApp and received a fantastic response from our communities (shown in the “Activities Conducted” section).
Our third post on Instagram was our announcement of a new event. We promoted an event to our community so they knew what we were doing and would come and support our cause.
Here is our flyer for the event. We passed them out to advertise, so more people were interested and aware about our event.
Accomplishments, Effectiveness, and Activities Conducted:
Our main goal for the project was to raise awareness for the underprivileged kids who cannot afford basic health hygiene necessities within our communities so that, in turn, we would be able to educate the underprivileged communities on why hygiene is not something that can be compromised, while also providing them with the supplies so they would be able to utilize that advice. With the events we conducted, we successfully spread the message about underprivileged kids and raised an interest in helping them. The events we held, the flyers we passed out, the donation drive, and future upcoming events will all contribute to raising awareness and helping us meet more of our aspirations. In regards to the social media aspect, our Instagram was able to reach 77 accounts to help raise awareness. However, as the future progresses, we hope to reach many more. One massive accomplishment we achieved was hosting a seminar about why health hygiene is vital to underprivileged kids in a rural city in India. In this seminar, we discussed healthy hygiene and how to practice it. In the end, we gave these kids a kit complete with hygiene items so they could apply these habits to their daily lives. By adopting centered educational activities and outreach programs, our health hygiene campaign has shown to be highly effective in raising community awareness. We have successfully communicated the value of health hygiene practices through engaging content, workshops, and strategic collaborations, resulting in greater knowledge, changed habits, and a heightened feeling of collective responsibility for community well-being. Not only has the program raised hygiene standards, but it has also created a resilient and aware community eager to handle health concerns jointly.
Why India?
As mentioned in our purpose, our approach involved creating a connection between our community and the people we are trying to outreach. As a result of this, we chose India because of the predominant South Asian population in Frisco, Texas. Looking at the demographics of Frisco, according to Liberty Wingspan, “about 22 percent of the population is Asian, more than four times the rest of Texas. Asians are the city’s largest minority demographic, and of that, 22.4 percent, South Asian and Indian immigrants make up 14 percent” (Liberty Wingspan). With this information, we wanted to create a way to instill an emotional connection within the community. The most significant way we could create an impact was to cater to the largest minority population. As shown above, that would be the South Asian demographic. With this in mind, we held a donation in our neighborhoods since it was predominantly South Asian. Because we were able to draw together our community here and receive funds, we were subsequently able to host our seminar in India (the largest country in South Asia), a place that holds significant cultural value within our local community. Although we started with the seminar in India, our community still holds many different people of different ethnic backgrounds, and we would like to use that to expand and help other underprivileged people in the many other diverse parts of our globe.
References:
Saravanan, V. (n.d.). Frisco continues to grow in population, popularity and diversity. Libertywingspan.com. https://libertywingspan.com/69834/news/frisco-continues-to-grow-in-population-popularity-and-diversity/#:~:text=But%20in%20Frisco%2C%20about%2022
Budiman, A., & Ruiz, N. G. (2021, April 29). Key facts about Asian Americans, a diverse and growing population. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2021/04/29/key-facts-about-asian-americans/
Payne, M. (2021, November 4). 2020 census: Frisco’s Asian community grows. Community Impact. https://communityimpact.com/dallas-fort-worth/frisco/city-county/2021/11/04/2020-census-friscos-asian-community-grows/
Asian and Native Hawaiian / Pacific Islander American heritage … – Texas. (n.d.).
What are Hygiene Poverty & Hygiene Insecurity. (n.d.). Provision Promise.
https://provisionpromise.org/blogs/promise/what-is-hygiene-poverty-insecurity
Lone Star FAQs | Texas Health and Human Services. (n.d.). Www.hhs.texas.gov. Retrieved January 1, 2024, from https://www.hhs.texas.gov/services/financial/lone-star-card/lone-star-faqs#:~:text=You%20also%20can
WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION. (2022, March 21). Sanitation. WHO; World Health Organization: WHO. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/sanitation
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