"Protecting the beautiful game” is the motto for a new innovative partnership between the Council for East and Central Africa Football Associations (CECAFA) and WASH United around the 2012 CECAFA Tusker Senior Challenge Cup. Hand-washing with soap is the far most cost effective intervention to prevent diarrhoea, one of the leading causes of child deaths in Africa.

Together, CECAFA and WASH United will harness the positive power of sport to promote handwashing with soap in the region. During the tournament, CECAFA and WASH United will reach out to millions of football fans, both through television as well as in the stadium, to raise awareness for the importance of  hand-washing with soap at critical times.

The initiative is supported by participating national teams. 2.5 billion people worldwide live without access to a toilet. Diarrhoea resulting from a lack of toilets and poor hygiene has now overtaken pneumonia to become the biggest killer of children in Sub-Saharan Africa. Studies show that the simple act of hand-washing with soap at critical times can reduce the occurrence of diarrhoea by half.1 Moreover, it can also reduce the risk of lower respiratory tract infections like pneumonia by up to 23%.2 Unfortunately, this life-saving behaviour is not widely practiced.

While the overwhelming majority of households in Sub-Saharan Africa have soap available, many do not use it to wash their hands at critical times (most importantly after using the toilet and before eating). Using football ambassadors (including Didier Drogba, Asamoah Gyan, Bastian Schweinsteiger and many more) and innovative fun-based communication as a vehicle, WASH United aims to make hand-washing with soap a priority in people’s minds and - ultimately - to change people’s hand-washing behaviour.

CECAFA Media Officer Rogers Mulindwa explains, “CECAFA and WASH United have decided to join hands in a strategic partnership on the occasion of the 2012 CECAFA Tusker Senior Challenge Cup because we recognise the transformative role of football and sport stars, especially when it comes to changing mindsets and behaviour”. Hand-washing messaging will be communicated both during the broadcasts of the matches, as well as in the stadium.

Moreover, the national teams of the participating countries will play their part in “Protecting the beautiful game” by engaging in hand-washing trainings. WASH United Executive Director Thorsten Kiefer stresses: “We are extremely excited to work with CECAFA and engage with the participating national teams to promote hand-washing with soap in the region. It is such innovative partnerships that will help us achieve better progress towards the goal of ending the needless deaths of children in Africa.

 Project Partners

CECAFA

The Council for East and Central Africa Football Associations (CECAFA) is an association of the football playing nations in Eastern Africa. It is also an affiliate of CAF.

The CECAFA Senior Challenge Cup is the oldest football tournament in Africa. It is a tournament of FIFA and the Council of East and Central Africa Football Associations (CECAFA), and includes national teams from Central and East Africa (Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, South Sudan, Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Zanzibar, Somalia, Rwanda, Burundi and Djibouti). In 2005 and 2006 the tournament was sponsored by Ethiopian/Saudi businessman Sheikh Mohammed Al Amoudi, and was dubbed the Al Amoudi Senior Challenge Cup.

It is the successor tournament of the Gossage Cup, held 37 times from 1926 until 1966, and the East and Central African Senior Challenge Cup, held 7 times between 1965 and 1971. In August 2012, CECAFA signed a sponsorship deal worth US$450,000 with East African Breweries to have the cup renamed to the CECAFA Tusker Challenge Cup.

WASH United

WASH United gGmbH is a non-profit organization that harnesses the positive power of sport to registered as a charity in Berlin/Germany. More specifically, WASH United

• uses innovative sport-based games, educational materials and star posters to educate children and adolescents in a fun and participatory way about the importance of WASH (WAter, Sanitation and Hygiene) to facilitate life-saving behaviour change;

• harnesses the role model status of sport stars like Didier Drogba, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Nwankwo Kanu and many others to raise awareness for WASH issues at all levels;

• uses sport as a door opener to engage political decision-makers at all levels in the North and the South to promote the recognition and realization of the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation.
WASH United currently works in 8 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and in India.