Homemade faucets

While my mom was here we taught the women in my Healthy Homes group how to make homemade hand-washing stations with easy to find recycled materials. In Spanish they are called “llaves caseros” which translates more directly to homemade water faucets.

Hand washing is a habit that is not at all commonly practiced, thus the need for health volunteers to at least try to confront this in their communities. After I received a very gracious gift of nice soaps from Dr. Duffy and his wonderful office I decided it was the perfect time to make the hand washing stations that we learned about in training. The women were absolutely ecstatic about the soap, especially when I told the group it was from a dermatologist in the states.

The model is very simple. You need a large plastic soda bottle, string, soap and water. Since we had the mini soaps, my mom and I creatively decided to cut up a couple of shower loofas and tie them on the bottles with the soaps inside. This allows an easy way to lather up and it lets the soap dry in the air instead of sitting on a wet tray.

I was surprised, as usual, how something so simple can make these women so excited. Seeing them wash their hands on a more regular basis now is definitely a nice payoff too. Their only complaint is that they need to refill the bottle with water too often since their kids wash their hands too much.