For centuries, observing hand hygiene has been considered as a do-it-yourself vaccine against contaminating bacteria and viruses causing stomach, respiratory, skin and eye infections from poor hygiene practices. To date, proper hand hygiene remains to be a crucial preventive health measure in curbing the spread of COVID-19. Data has it that over 95% of institutions, commercial and public premises in our country lack sustainable and efficient amenities for the public to utilize in matters of observing proper hand hygiene.

The three main barriers to hand washing practices at school level are cost of water, lack of facilities and soap disappearance/wastage. The G-tap is a group hand washing device that dispenses water and soap separately serving up to 40 users simultaneously while saving over 80% of water, soap and time used per wash.

The device is made from locally available materials and has proved to increase hand washing behavior among pupils by over 70% within 5 weeks after installation hence as a preventive health measure in line with SDGs 3, 4 & 6 our innovation is bound to improve the health of children, reduce class absenteeism by pupils sitting at home nursing communicable diseases and reduce water consumption/wastage which is a scarce resource in Africa and developing countries.

Through the implementation of the G-Tap, Tippy Tap Kenya aims to achieve the following:

• Install hand hygiene devices – Phase 1 targets to provide institutions , commercial and public premises with our variety of diverse innovative water/soap and sanitizer dispensers
• Engage the general public through interactive activities on good hygiene practices within their immediate institutions, social, Residential, commercial or public spaces
• Establish affordable and sustainable supply of hand sanitizers and liquid soap solutions available to the general public which will be achieved by us producing and selling them at subsidized prices Main Barriers to Observing Proper Hand Hygiene
• Mitigate the lack/cost of water ; on average it takes 500ml of water for a person to properly wash hands making it costly if to be utilized by the masses on a daily base
• Mitigate the lack of facilities ; with few or no hand hygiene devices on site within these premises makes it hard for one to observe proper hygiene whenever necessary
• Increase the availability of soap and affordable sanitizing solution ; on average a 150ml tube of alcohol based hand sanitizer will cost $2 USD and will last a week used by one person, making it a costly expense for many. Through the G-Tap, they offer a diverse range of innovative and sustainable hand hygiene devices and solutions that are tailor made to suit individual customer preference at affordable prices Projected Impact
• Develop new WASH Infrastructures ; guarantees sustainable hand hygiene devices with sanitizers/soap within institutions, commercial and public spaces
• Established affordable and sustainable supply of hand sanitizers and liquid soap to users
• Improved public confidence to embark on their daily normal activities that moves the economy
• Saved resources; the reduced costs of water, sanitizers, soap and time used by users compared to current alternatives.

Tippy Tap Kenya is currently raising capital and funds in order to set up a central manufacturing workshop and begin production of at least 1500 hand hygiene devices which will be supplied to over 600 public and private premises in Kenyam with projected profit margins of over 60% in profits. This will guarantee over 500,000 daily users have access to sustainable hand hygiene facilities within their immediate institutions, commercial, residential or public spaces in the mutual fight against spread of COVID-19 and other communicable diseases caused by poor hygiene practices.