With Lifebuoy’s Life saving mission to spread the importance of good hand washing habits around the globe, around 130 million people have been taught the healthy hand washing habits.
Handwashing with soap, especially for children under the age of five, has never been more important as it is today. Viral and bacterial diseases are on the rise globally, such as Ebola epidemic Disease (EVD) and the fact that diseases like Cholera, Diarrhea and pneumonia are still life-threatening in many developing countries, including India and Pakistan.
‘Handwashing with soap is the single most cost effective intervention to prevent child deaths. It is proven to reduce diarrheal disease by up to 45% killers of children under 5, and pneumonia by 23%.’
In this regard, Lifebuoy India launched a campaign named ‘Tree of Life’ marked with a ground breaking 3 minutes award winning film, bringing a real, personal and powerful perspective through Gondappa’s story, a father’s journey to celebrate his son’s 5th birthday.
A year ago Lifebuoy adopted Thesgora, a village in India and through its hand washing programs, a marked improvement was noticed in children’s hand washing habits i.e. they now wash their hands 2 additional times per day. This year Lifebuoy takes its life saving mission to Bitobe in Indonesia and has created ‘Tree of Life ‘to raise awareness of their important mission.
Samir Singh, Global Brand VP, Lifebuoy, stated “It is unacceptable that 1.7 million children die every year from infectious diseases when we have cost effective lifesaving solutions, such as handwashing with soap, readily available. We wanted to tell the world the Lifebuoy story in a deeply emotional way and turn the Help A Child Reach 5 campaign into something personal and powerful.”
Lifebuoy (a brand of Unilever) also worked with Jana Marketplace to target specific individuals and encouraged them to promote healthy hygiene habits. In just ten weeks, Jana Marketplace connected Lifebuoy to 1,700,000 Indian individuals.
Watch the video here:
In Pakistan , Lifebuoy has been working restlessly to inculcate the same habit of hand washing in children since the last 4 years. Lifebuoy along with Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi (ITA), The Citizen’s Foundation (TCF) and Reema Khan, the filmstar and Lifebuoy’s Brand Ambassador are visiting schools and communities across Pakistan to create awareness on handwashing with soap to help save millions of lives.
A special comic book based on the same message, was also unveiled at the Ida Rieu Welfare Association for the blind and deaf. An outdoor campaign has also been launched in Pakistan including pole signs and billboards for the ‘Help A Child Reach 5’ campaign.
Ehsan Malik, Chairman Unilever Pakistan Limited says,“To date, Lifebuoy has impacted the handwashing behaviours of 183 million people worldwide. In Pakistan, Lifebuoy has taken the onus to champion hygiene education particularly amongst school going children and thereby improve the quality of lives of the people of Pakistan. We continue to engage multi sector stakeholders to amplify this message further and are grateful to our social sector and civil society partners for joining this movement,’’
Globally, Lifebuoy has successfully initiated campaigns under the hash tag ‘#HelpAChildReach5’,giving away simple message of washing Hands in order to keep children safe from preventable diseases.
