It All Starts with the Basics

“I didn’t know that having dirty hands meant that you had bad microbes,” says 12-year-old José Miguel. “You have to keep your hands clean because if you don’t, you get sick.”

Twelve-year-old José Miguel is in the 6th grade in Caracollo Municipality in Bolivia. José Miguel is the oldest in his family — he has two younger brothers, Jonathan (7) and José Luís (5 months).

José Miguel is one of our sponsored children. His classmates elected him to be their grade representative and attend the Leadership School where he learned about better hygiene habits and water disinfection methods. During 2009, José was one of 1,430 children trained as facilitators to conduct workshops for their classmates on why it is important to be clean in order to be healthy. He shares his thoughts with us:

“I didn’t know that having dirty hands meant that you had bad microbes. I never washed my hands when I played or went home or went to school. Then, Juan, our speaker in the Leadership sessions said that you have to keep your hands clean because if you don’t, you get sick.”