AWARD YEAR
2017
CATEGORY
Body
GOALS
Clean Water & Sanitation
KEYWORDS
children's health, Nudging, Handwash
COUNTRY
India
DESIGNED BY
Amanat Anand, Junho Byun, Shubham Issar, Yogita Agrawal
WEBSITE
http://www.soapen.com
SoaPen
A wearable and portable soap re-designed to encourage hand washing amongst young children.
Being markable on skin, it is used for drawing on a child’s dry hands. When children wet and rub their hands, the drawing lathers- the goal of colourless hands, prompts them to thoroughly wash hands for the ideal 20-40 seconds. Teachers can apply SoaPen to a child’s hands within the classroom and effortlessly ensure desired level of sanitation by checking ,after the hand wash, that the child’s hands are mark free. A supporting website provides ideas such as downloadable posters to incorporate SoaPen into the curriculum, to reach far and wide. SoaPen taps into a two-directional awareness flow: Children learn how to wash their hands in schools, take their knowledge home and share it with parents. It fulfills the 3 “R”s of habit formation: Reminder: The physical presence of SoaPen in the classroom; Routine: The SoaPen website suggests innovative ways of using SoaPen daily; Reward: joy of unmarked hands.