As part of efforts to drive awareness for good hygiene
among school pupils, Unilever Nigeria Plc has donated
samples of Lifebuoy soap to schools across the countries.
At one of the donation site, Oregun High School, the
management of the Unilever enjoined the pupils to imbibe
the attitude of handwashing as a critical step to preventing
them from contacting diseases adding that doing so will
further help them to stay healthy as they pursue their life
ambition.Speaking at the assembly ground of the school premises to
sensitize the students on the essence of hand washing and
the steps to be taken to prevent any form of diseases, The
brand building director of the company, Mr. David Okeme
explained that hygiene has become necessary considering
the danger it poses to the future of children especially as it
affects the realization of their life-long goals.
He said” Hygiene is something that is attached to the future
of the children. In many cases, they always lead to the
death of children. As a company, we believe that we have a
role to play in ensuring that they grow up healthy and
strong to become the leaders of tomorrow. You must take to
the seven steps to good hygiene because doing so will help
promote healthy living”Speaking further on what inform the initiative, Okeme
explained that the idea stem out of the need to increase the
level of awareness as far as hand washing was concerned
and also promote good nutrition which formed the reason
for bringing on the brand at inception.
He said” Lifebuoy is the world number one soap. It came at
a point when the world was in the midst of diarrhoea
epidemic after the Second World War. Since then, lifebuoy
has been in the service of humanities trying to actually
drive the awareness of nutrition and the impact of poor
nutrition on children especially in Nigeria where mortality
among children between the age of 5 and above is
extremely high. As a matter of confirmation, it has been
proven that basic hand washing actually reduces that
incidence of disease by more than 50%. What we are doing
is to carry on with the purpose of the brand lifebuoy.
Secondly, it is the fact that we have just been through a
major health emergency with lifebuoy contributing
immensely through awareness creation and donation of
soap to help drive the behavior. It is not just good enough
to tell people how to wash hand but to give them the
tool .That is what we are doing today. In Nigeria, we are
giving a million free samples of lifebuoy to children to help
them embed the behavior of hand washing . This donation
you are seeing today has happened in key countries where
we had this health challenge across West Africa. This is
how Unilever has chosen to intervene to help restore our
children with the right behaviours and ensure that we live a
very healthy life.
Asked if the donation is done only in Lagos , Okeme
disagreed saying that donations were taking place
simultaneously across the country..He said” This is not a one shot intervention we are
doing .Lifebuoy runs a school program which goes to
schools across the country to teach children. So, we have
that as a regular service. By today, we have directly
reached over 3 million school children to teach them the
importance of hand washing. We have an ongoing service
to drive awareness in that area. This is already happening
across the country.On her part, the principal of the school, Mrs.Kuti
Toyin commended the company and the non governmental
organization for the initiative.
She said” I think Unilever as well as the NGO has
really done well. You are aware that the ebola issue was
really challenging for us as a nation. By this action, I want
to appreciate them on behalf po the school, the state
government. For me, this action is not about saving the
child alone but saving the world.
In his remarks, the representative of the NGO,Mr.Opeyemi
Odedere Save the Children, harped on the importance of
hand washing to personal hygiene stating that the
intervention being made by Unilever will go a long way to
promote healthy life among the children.
He said” Prior to now, we have been hearing about
prevention against disease. But we all know what led to
this campaign, the Ebola issue which has been curtailed.
But yet, we find it as an opportunity to chase it away by
making sure we educate the children on preventive
measures not only for Ebola built other diseases. This is an
opportunity to also educate them on the essence of hand
washing, keeping proper hygiene. Apart from the daily
washing of hand, there are methods that are meant to be
used to be able to wash the hand effectively.
No comments:
Post a Comment