A simple bar of soap is making a big difference in the lives of people in impoverished communities in Ghana. Distributed by short-term missionaries, it is the centerpiece of a hygiene awareness drive that improves the health and welfare of many living on the margins.

Mission team members will be holding special hand-washing presentations at some the local schools we support, and also in local village meeting places. These sessions offer an explanation of how disease can be spread by handling food with dirty hands, and a demonstration of effective hand-washing. Participants are given an opportunity to practice the proper technique, and also receive a free bar of soap to take home with them. Basic hygiene steps like these can reduce sickness, which means families have to spend less of their limited income on medicines, and also lose less work time.

The hand-washing lessons are just part of TEL International’s broader healthcare work, which also includes medical checkups, distribution of water filters, and drilling fresh water wells. These initiatives are in turn part of TEL International’s efforts to share God’s love through practical care.

Frequent sickness only makes the lives of the poor that much harder. Yet it is possible to make significant improvements in health by taking some basic hygiene precautions. By sharing these lessons, we want to show people that God loves them and cares for their well-being. A 13-year-old girl who participated in one of the presentations said later that she intended to use the little money she had to buy more soap for all her family to use.

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