More than 120 million children in 70 countries, across five continents, are participating in the first U.N. Global Hand Washing Day. Participants will mark the day with high-profile awareness-raising and educational activity to change people's behavior and teach them that hand washing is an essential part of good sanitation. Lisa Schlein reports for VOA from Geneva.      

A child washes her hands on October 15, 2008 in Abidjan, on the first International Hand Washing Day.

The U.N. Children's Fund said the simple act of washing hands with soap and water can save millions of children's lives. UNICEF Spokeswoman, Veronique Taveau said diarrhea kills almost two million children every year. About 500,000 of these deaths occur in West and Central Africa.

She said, "If children use soap and wash their hands ... after going to the toilet, that we can reduce by 50 percent the number of children that die every year before the age of five. So, that is something very, very important."  

UNICEF said pneumonia is the number-one cause of death in children under five years old, claiming nearly two million lives every year. It said hand washing with soap can reduce the incidence of this and other acute respiratory infections by around 23 percent.

Nearly half of the world's population does not have access to adequate sanitation.  

Carolien Van Der Voorden is part of a public-private alliance behind Global Hand Washing Day. She said hand washing is an essential part of good sanitation.  She said washing hands with soap and water is the most cost-effective way of preventing disease. "There have been studies that show that actually most households do have soap in the household. But, they do not use it. They keep it for when there are special visitors coming or they might use it to do the washing, but not to do hand washing."

"So," said Van Der Voorden, "it is a matter of making them understand that yes, it costs money. It is valuable to buy soap. But, it is actually more effective to spend your money on soap than it is to go to the doctor because your child has diarrhea again."  

UNICEF said thousands of children will be participating in special events to encourage hand washing in 13 countries across West and Central Africa. It said stepping up investment in this hygienic practice will make a significant contribution to meeting the Millennium Development Goal of reducing deaths among young children by two-thirds by 2015.

It reported two of every 10 children in west and central Africa die before they reach their fifth birthday.