Global Handwashing Day is a campaign to encourage people around the world to wash their hands with soap. It takes place on October 15 of each year. The campaign's goal is to raise awareness of handwashing with soap as a key way to prevent diseases with hygiene.

The holiday was made at the annual World Water Week 2008, which was held in Stockholm from August 17 to 23. Out of this week came the Public Private Partnership for Handwashing (PPPHW). The Global Handwashing Day took place for the first time on October 15, 2008, the date appointed by United Nations General Assembly to go along with the year 2008 as the International Year of Sanitation.^[1]

The theme for Global Handwashing Day’s inaugural year was Focus on School Children. The members pledged to get the maximum number of school children handwashing with soap in more than seventy countries.

1. ↑ "WHO Global Handwashing Day". Archived from the original on 2011-05-18. Retrieved 2011-04-25.

• Official site for Global Handwashing Day
• World Bank Sanitation Program
• UNICEF