Unilever Ghana Limited has launched a social mission campaign to ‘Help a Child Reach 5’ (HACR5) at the College of Physicians and Surgeons in Accra.
The objective of the campaign is to eradicate under-five mortality resulting from preventable diseases such as cholera by promoting among the general public, especially mothers and children, lifesaving hand washing habits, involving simple hand washing behaviours before breakfast, lunch, dinner, after visiting the toilet and during daily bath.
The campaign will raise awareness about the critical contribution of hand washing with soap to prevent children from infection-causing germs. Help a Child Reach 5 will there mobilize the Ghanaian society to adopt and practice hand washing with soap during the five occasions.
The Managing Director of Unilever, Ziobeieton Yeo said, “Through this social mission, we seek to help eradicate under-5 mortality by promoting basic hygiene behaviours among Ghanaians.” According to him, “this initiative has been necessitated by the huge numbers of children under the age of 5 across the world, who die each year from diseases that can be prevented by merely making one lifestyle change; washing hands with soap under running water.”
Mr. Yeo added that Unilever has already taken the campaign to several schools across the country to teach pupils and teachers the right way to wash hands at all times with Lifebuoy soap and is now spreading the mission to reach new mothers and health professionals.
Nana Kissi, Director of Personal Care Unilever Ghana Nigeria, added that through the HACR5 campaign “we will raise awareness about the critical contribution of hand washing with soap under running water to prevent children from infection-causing germs and mobilize Ghanaians to adopt this habit.”
Ms. Kissi said, “parents have aspirations for their children and children have ambitions but these are often aborted or cut short by a little germ innocently picked up and consumed because a child or parent does not wash their hand with soap and water. She explained that this simple habit of washing hands with soap can reduce infant death by 25% and ensure more children live to reach the age of 5.
Representatives from the Ministries of Health and Education were present at the launch and commended Unilever for rolling out this campaign to support government’s effort at reducing child mortality.
Unilever also launched a reformulated Lifebuoy with new variants, which give complete protection from 10 infection-causing germs.
