Child’s Play: Harnessing play and curiosity motives to improve child handwashing in a humanitarian setting

In humanitarian emergencies, low-cost, quickly deployable solutions are needed to protect children from diarrhoea. Handwashing with soap is effective, but interventions targeting children’s handwashing in such settings are scarce. Traditional methods are often school-focused and resource-intensive. Recent research suggests that behavior change interventions targeting specific motives may be more effective. This study tests a novel approach in an internally displaced persons camp in Iraqi Kurdistan, distributing modified soaps with embedded toys to encourage handwashing among older children. Compared to a control group receiving plain soap and standard health messaging, children using the toy soaps were four times more likely to wash their hands properly after key occasions. This proof-of-concept demonstrates that integrating toys into soap can improve handwashing behavior in emergencies. Further research is needed to evaluate its long-term impact and scalability.