Coronavirus: Dettol, Lagos to teach 50,000 children handwashing

Hygiene brand, Dettol, is teaming up with Lagos’ Office of SDGs and Investment on a campaign to teach at least 50,000 schoolchildren how to stay protected as the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak rages on.

School closures have been ruled out among restrictions to slow the spread of the coronavirus, but public health officials already issued advisories instructing that schools ensure personal and environmental hygiene to avoid infections.

The World Health Organisation insists good hygiene is an “important barrier to many infectious diseases” and promotes better health and well-being.

Dettol says its School Hygiene Programme is its initiative committing to maintain personal hygiene, using teaching aids and fun activities.

The programme has reached nearly five million teachers and schoolchildren in the past seven years.

In the latest effort, a hygiene education team visited St Mary’s Convent School on Lagos Island to teach over 500 pupils how to prevent transmission respiratory illnesses like Covid-19 through proper hand hygiene.

“Our health is in our hands. Hand washing a few times during the day prevents a lot of illnesses,” said Dayanand Sriram, general manager at Reckitt Benckiser West Africa, which manufactures the Dettol brand.

“In light of the panic around coronavirus, what we can do individually is to carry out preventive actions and constant hand hygiene is one of the most important ones in the fight against communicable diseases. RB is proud to partner with the Lagos State Government, and our goal is to reach 50,000 children in 20 local government areas of the state.”

A special adviser for SDGs to the Lagos State Government, Solape Hammond, said, “This is a year in which Lagos State Government has decided to focus on SDG6 and SDG3 which relate to the health and environment pillars.

“It’s very important that sanitation and wellbeing are taken very seriously. Now with what is going on with coronavirus, we know that it is a disease that is easily communicable, but the chances of its spread are greatly reduced when people wash their hands, so we are encouraging every Lagosian out there to adopt these hygiene practices.”