Lifebuoy’s ‘Help a Child Reach 5’ campaign told
The simple habit of washing hands with soap before a meal and after using the toilet can save over one crore lives every year. If taken up by children, the practice can significantly reduce child mortality, helping the government reach the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.
Aiming to spread this message, managers of Unilever Bangladesh Limited visited 25 schools in the capital yesterday as part of an awareness raising campaign, “Help a Child Reach 5”, initiated on October 1 by Unilever, which produces the Lifebuoy soap.
The campaign, to popularise hand washing among children and make them understand how it can prevent diseases like diarrhoea and pneumonia, also marked “Global Handwashing Day”, scheduled for October 15.
Yesterday, the students were provided an interactive demonstration on proper hand-washing techniques and shown microscopic images of how harmful germs can breed in unwashed hands.
They were given a bar of soap on a pledge to wash their hands with soap from now on before touching food.
Unilever Brand Building Director KSM Minhaj said, “Such diseases prevent 1.7 million children worldwide from reaching their fifth birthday every year.”
He added that the risk of contracting diarrhoea can be reduced by 45 percent by washing hands at the key occasions.
Unilever has already reached 55 schools across the country this month.
-With The Daily Star input
