Sounds of Omawumi music rules as Lifebuoy celebrates Global Handwashing Day

The sounds of Omawumi music from Today na Today to When Breeze Blow, Brighter Day, As I dey, Blessings Flow, In The Music and Belle among others dominated the atmosphere as Lifebuoy, a leading anti-bacterial soap brand from Unilever Nigeria visited schools across the country on to mark this year’s edition of the Global Handwashing Day (GHD).

Themed ‘High 5 for Handwashing’, this year’s celebration, like the past seek to teach children the importance and benefits of proper handwashing with soap and foster a local and global culture of handwashing with soap as a key approach to disease prevention.

Speaking at the event, Category Manager Skin Cleansing, Osato Evbuomwan said Unilever has since 2008 been celebrating the Global Handwashing Day, a campaign aimed to motivate and mobilize people around the world to improve their handwashing habits across the world.

“Global Handwashing Day, remind us that basic hygiene interventions like handwashing can make a huge difference in reducing the rate of child mortality, which will in turn improve the health and well-being of Nigerians, especially children under the age of 5,” she said

She explained that this year event is unique in that the celebration is coming to Nigeria on the back of recent brand re-launch of Lifebuoy in September, and the addition of Omawumi to the team as the Lifebuoy brand ambassador for Nigeria.

“This year’s celebration is unique because the world, will ‘High 5’ for a special reason – to teach a child handwashing,” she added.

The team took a hands-on approach to educate the pupils on how to prevent the spread of germs and diseases by adopting the simple, life-saving act of hand washing. Simple demonstrations of efficacy of Lifebuoy anti-bacterial soap against today’s more resistant bacteria were employed to drive the children’s recall, whilst they were taught key occasions for handwashing to enable habit-building.

In her remark, wife of the Senate President and founder/president, Well Being Foundation Africa, Mrs Toyin Saraki, said the importance and benefits of handwashing cannot be over emphasised.

“It can dramatically reduce the risk of diarrhoea and pneumonia, and thwarts the spread of diseases like Ebola. Access to clean water, good sanitation and hygiene is also a significant factor in the prevention of blindness caused by trachoma,” she said.

Omawumi on her part described the initiative as apt, noting that it will have a direct impact on children less than 12 years, who are most vulnerable to infection-causing germs.

“I am very excited at how actively Lifebuoy has taken up this campaign for handwashing, bringing it to the children one-on-one instead of just advertising through mediums that may be forgotten over time. I have met with and taught kids just like my own how to wash their hands and they now understand better the importance of this habit,” she said.

Corroborating Omawumi’s statement, Evbuomwan stated that germs today have evolved and are stronger than ever before, with more than 215,000 children under the age of five dying in Nigeria every year from preventable infectious diseases like diarrhoea and pneumonia.

She further explained that the simple act of handwashing with soap has proven to be one of the most cost-effective, yet often overlooked solutions in preventing these deaths.
“To this end, Unilever’s new Lifebuoy soap has been formulated with ‘active-silver’, an anti-microbial agent that provides stronger protection against stronger germs,” she stated.