Every day, thousands of young children in Malawi spend hours in Early Childhood Development Centres (ECDCs) – eating, playing, and learning alongside caregivers and peers. These shared environments carry real risks: studies in Blantyre have identified significant gaps in handwashing, food hygiene, and environmental cleanliness that can expose young children to pathogens causing diseases including diarrhoea and cholera.

The RGHI ECDC project – a research collaboration between Malawi University of Business and Applied Sciences- MUBAS through WASHTED, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, U. of London, and University of Strathclyde – has been systematically addressing these challenges since 2024. The current study builds directly on earlier phases, including formative work that identified poor hand hygiene and food handling practices among ECDC staff and learners as critical contamination risks.

The latest field phase commenced on 25th May 2026, with international technical support from Dr Kelly Baker, Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Environmental Health at the State University of New York at Buffalo, who provided expert mentorship in microbiological methods and data interpretation. Over one month, the team visited 15 ECDCs across Blantyre District, collecting samples from caregivers’ and children’s hands, utensils, cleaning water, plates, and eating surfaces. Fieldwork concluded on 25th June 2026, and samples are now being analysed at the Kamuzu University of Health Sciences (KUHeS) laboratory for pathogenic Escherichia coli and other enteric pathogens.

Findings will directly inform the design of targeted, evidence-based hygiene interventions to better protect children in Malawi.