The Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection, Cynthia Morrison, has called on corporate organizations to partner health institutions to educate the public on the benefits of personal hygiene, particularly hand washing.
In a speech read on her behalf during the commemoration of Lifebuoy’s Global Hand washing Day at the Christ The King International School in Accra, the Minister entreated parents to continue reminding children about the importance of regular hand washing with soap under running water.
Speaking on the theme: “Clean Hands For All,” the Managing Director of Unilever Ghana, Gladys Amoah, said the company, through its hygiene behavioral change programme, has reached a billion people globally, including three and a half million Ghanaians.
“As a business, we take the Lifebuoy Hand-washing Training programme to schools because we acknowledge that children are the best advocates for change.”
“We also focus on communities through mothers in women’s groups in churches and other organizations with the hope that good hygiene habits will be adopted by as many people as possible.”
The Deputy Minister of Health, Alexander Kodwo Kom Abban, commended Unilever for championing the initiative, and urged the company to continue to support government efforts in fighting common diseases such as diarrhoea and cholera, adding that economic growth will be in vain without a healthy population.
Unilever, through its Lifebuoy brand co-founded the Global Hand-washing Day (GHD) in 2008 alongside UNICEF, USAID, the World Bank Water and Sanitation Programme, US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Academy for Educational Development.
