600,000 children pledged with Safeguard and its partners, under the patronage of Ministry of Environment and Unicef, to celebrate the first-ever Global Handwashing Day (GHD) in Pakistan.
Procter 8 Gamble, manufacturer of leading anti-bacterial soap Safeguard, has been selected by the Public-Private Partnership for Handwashing with Soap (PPPHW) as lead organisation for GHD in Pakistan for its sustained commitment to hygiene awareness.
GHD is a global awareness drive on hand washing with soap, which is the one of the most effective ways to prevent diarrheal diseases and pneumonia. GHD was the centrepiece of a week of activities that mobilised millions of people in more than 20 countries across all five continents to wash their hands with soap and to raise awareness about benefits of Handwashing with soap. Keeping this concern in mind, Safeguard has successfully mobilised more than 50 public private stakeholders on the platform of GHD including the Ministries of Health and Environment, Unicef, WHO, USAID and many other development sector organisations to cultivate a culture of Handwashing with soap, and to manifest its vision for a healthier nation.
Speaking at the occasion, Jawed Ali Khan, Director General (Environment), Ministry of Environment said, "We are proud to be associated with P&G's Safeguard as a leading partner in Global Handwashing Day. Partnerships among national and local governments, international organisations, nongovernmental organisations (NGOs), and multinational, as well, as local soap manufacturers can be extremely effective in promoting Handwashing with soap.
In the long term, GHD can become a powerful platform for advocacy aimed at policy makers and key stakeholders and an occasion for concrete public commitment to actions that will spur behaviour change. We would like to thank the P&G Safeguard team for leading this initiative in Pakistan, and the Safeguard brand for touching and improving the lives of thousands of Pakistani children."
Elaborating on the concept of GHD, Asim Naseer, Director Marketing, P&G expressed, "In Pakistan, 670,000 children are estimated to be absent from schools everyday due to illness. Safeguard's mission is to reduce school absenteeism due to illness through Handwashing habit change at the grassroots level in Pakistan. Over the past 5 years, Safeguard through its Sehat-o-Safai school education programme and inspirational Commander Safeguard cartoon series has been successful in promoting health education to more then 5 million children in 14,000 schools nation-wide."-PR
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