One of the quickest ways that the corona virus can easily be spread, is through the touch of the hands; through handshakes, hugs, and by touching the eyes, nose, or face with infested hands. Proper hand washing therefore is one of the major safety protocols being emphasized on by the health professionals in order to curb the spread of the virus. It is in this vain that the implementations team of the ‘Scouts against Covid19 and Campaign for Electoral Peace Project’ Included in their objectives; the construction of Tippy Tap Hand Washing Stands in households and public places in selected rural communities in the northern region of Ghana to encourage the habit of proper hand washing.

The Tippy Tap Hand Washing Stand is a simple structure constructed with a bottle, a rope and sticks. Two of the sticks are mounted at least one meter away from each other and another stick placed across the two standing sticks. The bottle is then hanged in the middle of the crossing bar and a hole is made below the neck of the bottle, a rope is passed through it to the ground where another stick is tied (this is where you tap with your leg for water to flow).  The bottle is filled with water and soap placed on the side. Anyone who wants to wash their hands simply has to tap the stick tied to the rope with their foot and water flows from the hole below the bottle neck.  The Tippy Tap is not very difficult to construct and requires not very much materials to be done.

 The team constructed at least five (5) tippy taps in 25 selected communities in the project location, they taught some members of the communities how to construct it and donated bottles and ropes for them to construct more of it in the community, and they were very happy with the idea. We also took advantage to teach them how to properly wash their hands, taking into consideration the important parts of the hands germs usually hide and the best and most important times that they must never hesitate to wash their hands. We gave out medicated soaps to individuals and liquid hand washing soaps per every Tippy Tap Constructed.  

It is the expectation of the team that by the end of this project, the habit of proper hand washing amongst people in the rural communities will be adopted and practiced so much that it becomes a norm, and as many people as possible will have access to hand washing stands, soap and sanitizers to keep their hands clean at all times and most especially after they visit the washrooms, shake hands with people and or touch strange objects etc, this way, we can be sure that our goal of helping the people protect themselves against the virus is gradually being achieved.