The Golden Poo Awards

One of the really cool things about London is the diversity.  It's peoples, boroughs and events cover a wide range of cultures, endeavours and events.  A great example of this is the event to which I went this evening: the Golden Poo Awards 2009.  This event recognised efforts of peoples around the world to combat the nasty things (i.e. diarrhoea) that result from the poo that's transferred from person to person after a visit to the loo without washing one's hands with soap.  The ultimate message was "Clean hands save lives."

15 October was Global Handwashing Day.  To raise awareness, the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine partnered with the UK's Department for International Development (DfID) and other organisations that work to combat disease and promote public health, sanitation and hygiene.  The School hosted an event--the Golden Poo Awards--to increase awareness about the results of our vile habit of not washing hands properly after using the toilet.  Such an action makes us susceptible to unpleasant, disease-causing bugs.  This is especially a problem in the developing world, where diarrhoeal disorders per diseases transmitted by faecal matter kill annually millions of children under five.

The main feature of the awards was a film competition.  Six short films to raise proper hygiene awareness that were entered in the London Film Festival (which is currently on-going) competed for the coveted Golden Poo Award.  They were all cartoons and lasted about 2ish minutes each.  Some of them were hilarious (i.e. animals dancing to up-beat music whilst pooing and washing their hands), while others were pretty disgusting (i.e. cartoon people pooing on their hands and touching others to overtly demonstrate that is basically what you do if you don't wash your hands).  I won't be a spoiler and tell you which one won (hint: it's one of the films that I just described; I voted for the loser...).  The event organisers are putting the films on YouTube.  It's worth checking them out, as well as the website: www.globalhandwashingday.org.uk.  The videos, as well as other details of the awards, should be on that website.

PS--It was great to be around and go to the awards with people who get as excited as I do about [diarrhoeal] infections of bacteria and viruses, as well as bodily functions, like pooing, in general.  This place is GREAT!