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15 October 2019

SYDNEY, 15 October 2019: The Wiggles and UNICEF Australia have released a new song, ‘Handwashing Song’, and accompanying video to teach children how to wash their hands – view it here: https://youtu.be/DJD9zPv2NmM

Clean hands for all children

Written and sung by The Wiggles, the song seeks to motivate millions of children around the world to make washing their hands with soap a simple and enjoyable habit before eating food and after touching animals or going to the toilet. The new song is being released for Global Handwashing Day, today, for which the theme is “Clean Hands for All”.

As Ambassadors for UNICEF Australia, The Wiggles want to help raise awareness that handwashing with soap is an easy, effective and affordable way to prevent illness and diseases, and save lives.

Yellow Wiggle Emma Watkins said, "Music can make early life lessons enjoyable whilst being educational at the same time. We hope our ‘Handwashing Song’ will help to make handwashing fun for children and those caring for them and stop germs spreading to keep everyone healthy.”

How poor water, lack of sanitation and hygiene impacts children.

Every day, around 800 children under the age of five die from preventable diseases caused by poor water, and lack of sanitation and hygiene. Washing hands with soap before eating and after using the toilet can help reduce the incidence of diarrhoeal diseases, which are a major killer of children in developing countries, by almost 50 per cent.
 
CEO of UNICEF Australia Tony Stuart said, “Teaching children the importance of handwashing is a critical building block in good hygiene practice that can not only create healthier futures, it can save lives.
 
“We love that children have participated in the ‘Handwashing Song’ video to demonstrate how to wash your hands and know that they will inspire other children to do the same.” 

UNICEF’s water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) team

UNICEF’s water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) team works in over 100 countries worldwide to improve water and sanitation, and to ensure that children practice basic hygiene including handwashing. Last year, UNICEF’s programmes helped provide 18.6 million people with access to safe drinking water and 10.8 million people with access to basic sanitation.  

Note to editors:

To watch the ‘Handwashing Song’ video, please visit: https://youtu.be/DJD9zPv2NmM

You can listen to the ‘Handwashing Song’ online, wherever you get your music: https://abcmusic.lnk.to/handwashing

A printable copy of the lyrics is available via the following link:

http://thewiggles.com.au/parents/112/hygiene/62/global-hand-washing-day-song-with-unicef-australia

For more information, please contact:

Kylie Martin, The Wiggles, 0418 314 088, kylie@martini-media.com.au

About The Wiggles

The Wiggles have recently celebrated 28 years of entertaining millions of fans across the globe. They now have more than 1,098,300 social media followers and have sold over 30 million CDs & DVDs and 8 million books. More than 70 CD and DVD releases later, The Wiggles have earned 18 x gold, 13 x platinum, 3 x double-platinum and 10 x multi-platinum awards for their music and DVD sales and have been awarded 13 x ARIA Awards for Best Children’s Album (making ARIA history as the most awarded ARIA winner in the one category, and being inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame).

About UNICEF

UNICEF is the United Nations Children’s Fund and works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, to build a better world for everyone.