Promotion of Hand Hygiene Practice at Schools in Vietnam during COVID-19 Pandemic

Background 

The first case of COVID-19 caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus was confirmed in Vietnam on January 23, 2020.¹ Quarantining, monitoring, and restricting people in epidemic areas, border closing, medical warnings, and declarations were put in place. Direct human interaction activities, travel, and trade in high-risk localities have been limited. In some places where controls have been tightened, temperature checks are taken, antiseptic hand wash is used, and free masks are given out. Needless to say, the COVID-19 pandemic has socially impacted Vietnam in several ways. A Vietnamese pop song titled “Jealousy of CoVy”,² which is a revised version of a 2017 song titled “Jealousy”,³ went viral online during the global pandemic. The song’s goal was to raise awareness about the practice of hand hygiene in Vietnamese communities. Many localities have also organised movements to encourage the prevention of COVID-19.^4-5

The Vietnamese government has continuously emphasised the importance of proper hand hygiene practice as one of the most effective ways to protect citizens from being infected with COVID-19. However, proper hand hygiene has been limited in public places due to the shortage of hand washing facilities, such as hand washing basins and hand soap. As for the education sector, the school break for the year 2020’s Tet holiday (Vietnam`s lunar new year) was extended from 3 February to 9 February, and from mid-February 2020 to mid-May 2020, they had to let students out of school. That meant schools closed for three months to implement epidemic prevention procedures.^6-7

Preparations continued for the safe return of children to schools in June 2020. To support communities in their efforts to protect children from COVID-19, Saraya Greentek Co., Ltd., a branch company of Saraya Co., Ltd. (Japan) in Vietnam, in cooperation with AEON Vietnam and AEON TopValu, developed an education program called “Clean Hands 一 Strengthen Future“ that promoted hand hygiene in 100 preschools and primary schools in areas where AEON Vietnam has business. This program is the first phase of the Sustainable Education For the Youth (SEFY) project, a five-year project owned by AEON Vietnam to promote sustainable education for young children from 3 to 10 years old. The topics for the education program for each school year are determined by the Ministry of Education of Vietnam. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, “Clean Hands - Strengthen Future “ was chosen as the topic of the first phase of the SEFY project, which is from June 2020 to June 2021.

PURPOSE

The goal of this education program is to ensure a safe environment for school children during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. Specifically, the program provides young children with basic knowledge of hand hygiene and encourages the practice of frequent hand washing in their daily lives to form good habits in the practice of personal hygiene.

ACTIVITIES

Through this education program, we provided schools with hand-washing basins, hand soap, and educated the children about the basics of hand hygiene.

The program has provided 100 hand washing basins and 12,000 bottles of hand soap to schools

Saraya Greentek plays an important role in educating the children about the basic knowledge of hand hygiene in this mission. Our goal was to convey three important messages to the children: WHY to practise hand hygiene; WHEN to practise hand hygiene; and HOW to practise hand hygiene. We performed various activities to attract the children`s attention so they could learn about hand hygiene in an enjoyable way.

In our play, SGT's engineers portray types of food poisoning bacteria and the Coronavirus to show what happen to those students who do not wash their hands.

Local government representative, the school headmaster, and school children promise to practice hand hygiene on the Hand Hygiene Commitment Tree.

School children get involved in our programs on hand hygiene knowledge.	Dancers perform the "Jealousy of CoVy" song to promote the practice of hand hygiene.

Children practicing hand washing.	We gave out 65,000 mini handwashing manuals to school children to remind them of hand hygiene.

“We knew we needed many fun and visual activities for this educational program to maintain the young attentions, especially the three-to-five-yearold students in preschools, so children`s they would remember what they had learned”, said Le Kha Hung, a 23-year-old cnvironment engineer at Saraya Greentek, who is the young director for this school event. His design for this program—from the bacterial play to performances of the “Jealousy of CoVy“ dance 一 was based on his experience with various community charity activities when he was a university student. Together with other young colleagues at Saraya Greentek, including biologists, chemical engineers and food engineers, and under the guidance of Duong Linh Trang, the company`s CEO, Le Kha Hung has led the team to success, receiving much appreciation from local governments and teachers at the schools where they performed. 

Le Kha Hung, a 23-year-old environmental engineer, is the young director of our school event.	Le Kha Hung and Duong Linh Trang, the CEO of SARAYA Greentek, run through the program details before the performance at 1-6 Preschool in Hai Phong, Vietnam.
Performers practice the "Jealousy of CoVy" dance in the park.	Van Dai and Lan  Nguyen, chemical engineers at SARAYA Greentek make performance tools.

Conclusions

As of 9 March 2021, Vietnam has had a total of 2,524 confirmed COVID-19cases, including 35 s deaths and 1,920 recovered cases.⁸ According to a March 2020 survey, Vietnam is the country with the highest satisfaction in the world regarding the government`s response to the pandemic.<sup>9-10</sup> In the context of weak healthcare systems, low budgets, and its large population, Vietnam has implemented a strict 14-day quarantine policy and traced those exposed to the virus. Due to the recent spread of the new coronavirus strain,<sup>11</sup> officials are considering whether to increase the quarantine period from 14 to 21 days. Instead of depending on medicine and technology to prevent a coronavirus epidemic, Vietnam has established a widespread system of public surveillance, helped along by a well-supplied and generally respected military force.<sup>12</sup> The fundamental factor that drives the Vietnamese government`s success is framing the virus as “foreign invaders“ ¹³ to mobilise the country`s nationalism.

Alongside the government in the battle against the coronavirus, many community activities have focused on relieving adverse economic impacts on poor people and businesses in difficulty due to the pandemic through essential programs, such as providing Mask ATMs, ¹⁴ Rice ATMs,¹⁵ Zero Cost supermarkets, ¹⁶ reductions in bank interest rates, and extensions to bank loan terms.¹⁷

“The business sector should demonstrate social responsibility towards the community. Each business should work in a socially responsible manner to promote the interests of society. In times of need, such as the current COVID-19 pandemic spreading worldwide and in Vietnam, it is our responsibility to support our government and our people in the fight against the “foreign invaders“. Our team is young, and we also have expertise in the field of hygienic management. Together, with the synergy of our expertise, strength and enthusiasm, we will contribute our part to the success of the fight against COVID-19 in Vietnam. In the long term, we can help to form good habits in school children to practise hand hygiene in their daily lives“, said Duong Linh Trang, the CEO of Saraya Grecntek, to her team before she decided to lead the school education program.

“The extent of this project required the involvement of all members of our team, from engineers to accountants. It was also quite difficult for us to conduct our daily business activities while also performing our educational programs at schools across the country, including the practices and rehearsals for our performance. We have spent many hours after work and on weekends“, Duong Linh Trang added. “By the end of every performance in front of thousands of school children、 we were always very exhausted. However, when we saw the happy smiles on the teachers` faces, who really appreciated our efforts, and the joy and eagerness of the children who were deeply engaged in our program, our tiredness vanished. We knew we had done something good for the community!“