Kenya, Nairobi: Unilever enrols 100,000 schoolchildren in handwashing drive

Unilever through its Lifebuoy soap brand has reached 100,000 students in over 80 schools across Nairobi County its hand washing campaign. The “School of Five” campaign aims to get over one million people across Kenya to pledge to the habit of washing their hands with soap on five occasion throughout the day with the help of trained school children and teachers. The campaign is being jointly implemented by Lifebuoy Kenya and Water and Sanitation for the Urban Poor (WSUP).

Lifebuoy School of Five poster

Unilever contracted popular Kenyan singer Esther Wahome, in a two-year “multi-million shilling” deal, to act us brand ambassador  for the Lifebuoy School of Five campaign. In line with the campaign. Mrs Wahome has released a handwashing jingle dubbed Osha Mikono (Wash your hands) to accompany the campaign.

A 2010 clean hands study conducted to check the hand washing habits of Kenyans found that only 15 per cent are aware of the proper hand washing techniques.

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Source: Stanley Njenga, Nairobi Star / allAfrica.com, 09 Jul 2011 ; Hot Secrets, 25 Apr 2011

Global Handwashing Day: 200 million lather up for clean hands

More than 200 million schoolchildren, parents, teachers, celebrities and government officials in 80 countries lathered up in the third annual Global Handwashing Day on 15 October 2010. This year’s celebrations revolved around schools and children, and the theme “more than just a day“ aimed to make the simple, life-saving practice of washing hands a regular habit.

To ensure that efforts go far beyond one single day, the Global Public-Private Partnership for Handwashing with Soap launched several tools including a “100 School Survey” questionnaire, a monitoring toolkit, the More than Just a Day brochure, and the “Get Bubbly” children’s game.

South Africa or India: who holds the world record for handwashing?

South African children have set an official new Guiness World Record for the most number of people washing hands at one location, but a simultaneous event in India attracted more than eight times as many students.

About 15,000 students from 23 schools in Chennai converged under the blazing sun in Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium to celebrate Global Handwashing Day and break the previous record held since 22 October 2008 by Bhiddwa School Niketon of Dhaka, Bangladesh with 1,213 participants.

Photo: Indian Express

The programme in Chennai began almost an hour late. Luckily, the dignitaries kept their speeches short. Large screens placed in the stadium aired demonstrations on how to wash hands.

Soon after the speeches, the whistle blew and the children got into the act. They had bubble bottles, soaps and paper napkins all in place. And in less than 10 minutes, the event was over.

Though the children liked the idea of coming together and assembling in the stadium, the scorching heat posed a problem. “Our teachers insisted that we came, otherwise we would not have bothered about this,” said a group of children from a Corporation high school.

On the other hand, some students were really excited to be part of the event. “We knew that we are going to be part of a record-setting event. Despite being a bit tired, we find it great to be here,” said Saravan and friends from a school near Choolai.

The students were brought together by the government, World Health Organization and Lifebuoy to promote the habit of washing hands as a measure to prevent disease.

Bryan Habana washing hands with the children. Photo: Bongani Nkosi

At the same time in South Africa, local rugby hero Bryan Habana and 1,802 Gauteng schoolchildren were staging their own record breaking attempt.

Habana is part of the Gimme 5 for Germ-free Hands campaign led by Protex, an anti-bacterial soap brand, owned by Colgate Palmolive. The campaign has visited more than 1,200 primary schools throughout the country. On Global Handwashing Day about 1-million children from schools around South Africa washed their hands under the auspices of the brand.

The South African was officially recognised as a Guinness World Record by adjudicator Carl Saville, who flew out from the UK for the occasion.

Source: Indian Express, 16 Oct 2009

Soaps and detergents ‘could help tackle bird flu’

Commercially available soaps and detergents could kill the bird flu virus that causes extensive damage to poultry and can infect humans, scientists in Pakistan report [...] in the 28 March issue of Virology Journal. [They] reveal that simply washing poultry shed floors and equipment, transport vehicles and workers’ clothing can go a long way in containing the virus.

The scientists [...] tested the effect of common soap brands such as Lifebuoy and detergents such as Surf Excel, as well as heat, ultraviolet light and pH [...]. They found that common soap and detergent brands can kill the virus at a minimum soap/detergent concentration of 0.1 per cent in 5 minutes, and almost immediately at higher concentrations.

Other disinfectants such as formalin, iodine and phenol kill the virus in 15 minutes at concentrations ranging from 0.2 to 0.4 per cent. But heating the virus-infected samples or treating them with ultraviolet light – previously recommended by some virologists and agricultural agencies – took much longer time.

[...] Akbar Shahid, leading author of the study and a microbiologist at the Poultry Research Institute, Rawalpindi, [said] that although simple washing measures can contain the virus and prevent spread of infection, infected birds still need to be vaccinated.

Source: A. A. Khan, SciDev.Net, 09 Apr 2009