Record 3,000 children in hand washing relay

At exactly 12 noon on Friday, a record 3,000 children washed their hands in a relay ahead of Global Handwashing Day on Monday.

Reckitt Benckiser, maker of antibacterial soap Dettol, organised the record relay and built a wash point to promote hand washing with antibacterial soap, targeting 3,000 children from public primary schools across Abuja.

“It is a little, but a humble effort from the company to take action to drive awareness about hand washing,” said Dayanand Sririam, general manager of the firm.

Hand washing with antibacterial soap gets rids of bacteria children pick up in the course of the day, and children will need to wash up to five times a day, said Aliza Leferink, Reckitt Benckiser’s marketing director for West Africa.

“This is something we need for a healthy future in Nigeria. We have made tremendous progress but there’s still a lot of progress to be made knowing the incidence rate of diarrhoea,” said Leferink.

“We will stay on the forefront of promoting hygiene habit.

“And today, 3,000 is small but we are working; we need every Nigerian to adopt hygiene habit.”

Health minister Isaac Adewole called hand washing with soap or other alternative an “essential do-it-yourself vaccine” to prevent transmission of disease-causing germs.

In his remarks presented by Fubara Chukwu, national coordinator for food safety and quality programme, Adewole spoke of a need to institutionalise hand washing in school curriculum “so children will get to practise it early in life.”