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Reckitt Nigeria, makers of global hygiene brands, Dettol and Harpic recently renewed its Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Federal Ministry of Water Resources on the Clean Naija Initiative to achieve a cleaner and healthier nation.
At the ceremony, General Manager, Reckitt Sub-Saharan Africa, Akbar Ali Shah, said “reports place Nigeria among the top nations that bear a significant portion of the global disease burden and high under-5 mortality rates and recent reports have estimated that 46 million Nigerians still defecate in the open. Many of these diseases such as diarrhoea can be preventable by practicing proper hand washing habits and wide-scale hygiene education. We are elated to renew the partnership with the Federal Ministry of Water Resources on the Clean Naija Initiative and this is a confirmation of the initiative’s success in the last three years.”
Shah noted that through its Dettol brand, “Reckitt Nigeria has initiated hygiene educational programmes committed to tackling some of these issues. They include the School Hygiene and New Mum’s Program, through which the brand has educated millions of children and mothers on proper hand hygiene habits. We also evolved our school hygiene programme with the introduction of a structured hygiene curriculum called ‘The Hygiene Quest’.
The curriculum aims to educate children aged between 6 and 8 years about hygiene and change behaviours. It comprises a range of modules that use, comics, mini-games, physical worksheets and activities to deliver learning. The curriculum was piloted in public schools in all 20 LGAs within Lagos State and our impact end-line assessment showed a 34 per cent increase in knowledge of proper handwashing and a 7 per cent reduction in diarrhoea amongst the participants after the intervention. We intend to extend this curriculum to other states when the school year resumes in September 2022”.
