Championing safe hands
One of our oldest brands, Lifebuoy, is behind a massive, sustained direct contact health education programme aiming to raise hygiene standards in rural communities in India. Lifebuoy is seeking to drive home the message that washing your hands with a good germ-kill soap after defecation, before eating and before feeding children, can make a material difference in helping to prevent the spread of preventable infectious diseases such as diarrhoea and upper respiratory infections.
According to the World Health Organisation, diarrhoea is the largest single cause of preventable death, killing 2.2 million people every year. In 2003, it killed 600 000 children aged under five in India alone. It's been estimated that if everyone washed their hands properly at key times during the day, up to half of all childhood deaths from diarrhoea - one million children - could be avoided.
Lifebuoy Swasthya Chetna – the biggest rural health and hygiene education project ever carried out in India – has already helped around 70 million people in 18 000 villages become more aware of basic hygiene and the importance of hand-washing at critical points in the day with good germ protection soap. The five-year campaign aims to educate a total of 200 million people - 20% of the population.
"Our number one aim is to challenge the misconception that 'visibly clean' is 'hygienically clean'. And we are working with parents and children, health educators, teachers, community leaders and government agencies to spread the word," said Caroline Harding, Global Brand Director, Health Brands.
Clean hands
As part of the Swasthya Chetna programme, health workers visit villages and use a 'glo-germ' demonstration kit to show schoolchildren that germs remain on your hands unless you use soap and water: visibly clean is not necessarily 'safe clean'. Using educational materials, Lifebuoy teams visit each village several times, engaging all parts of the community and ensuring the formation of local 'self-help communities' able to sustain the message and ensure that the learning does not dwindle and fade away over time.
Marketing benefits
"Swasthya Chetna isn't about philanthropy; it's an outstanding example of business with a purpose. Our vision is to build cleaner, more hygienic and ultimately healthier communities, and the health of our business in the last few years demonstrates the power of this approach," said Rajev Shukla, Regional Brand Development Director for Lifebuoy in Asia and Africa.
Since Lifebuoy was relaunched in 2002 and the Swasthya Chetna programme started, sales of Lifebuoy have increased by around 20% a year. Other countries such as Bangladesh are now starting to implement similar campaigns.
