Global Handwashing Day: Dettol calls for habit change among Nigerians

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7 years ago

Marketing Director, RB Nigeria, Aliza Leferink; Headmistress, LEA Model Primary School, Maitama, Mrs Katherine Arron Rengkwar; General Manager, RB West Africa, Mr Dayanand Sriram; Director, Child Development, Federal Ministry of Women Affairs, Mrs Jumai Mohammed and Category Marketing Manager, Health, RB Nigeria, Akanbi Bayode, during the Global Handwashing Day ceremony in Abuja.

World’s leading antibacterial brand, Dettol has called on all Nigerians to imbibe the hand washing habit as a day-to-day activity, a practice which will reduce the incidence of communicable diseases by 59 percent according to recent findings of the World Health Organisation.

The management of the company made this call through a sensitization programme as part of its bid to join other Nigerians and countries across the world in the celebration of the 2018 Global Handwashing Day, today.

As part of its activities to mark this event, over 2,000 school children drawn from seven public and private schools benefited from the Dettol’s School Hygiene Programme across four Local Governments in the FCT, as they participated in a symbolic hand-wash relay, at L.E.A Model Primary School, Maitama, Abuja. Dettol also donated 12 hand washing stations to help facilitate and maintain the habit of proper hand washing by the school children.

Speaking on Dettol’s 2018 Global Handwashing Day activities, the General Manager, RB West Africa, Mr Dayanand Sriram said: “Dettol has been the trusted champion for good health and hygiene for over 50 years in Nigeria, and we believe that it is important to inculcate good habits such as proper handwashing at an early age. A simple act of washing hands with soap can prevent illnesses and arrest diarrhoea related deaths. This is why we are continuing with the tradition of driving habit change, and provision of needed infrastructure.

“Over the past years, Dettol has provided over handwashing sites and educated over 7 million children, parents and teachers about the importance of handwashing through the School Hygiene Program, which is a mass education program about proper handwashing and hygiene habits.

Dettol has been running health and hygiene programmes across Nigeria where new mothers are educated from pregnancy to the birth of the child on healthy hygiene habits across various milestones of their newborn’s life. Over 700,000 mothers are engaged every year through the programme in public hospitals and clinics across Nigeria,” he added.