BIDCO rolls out Campaign in Schools for Better Hygiene on Global Handwashing Day
Nairobi, Kenya – October 15, 2020 . . . In line with the 2020 Global Handwashing Day theme “Hand Hygiene for All” BIDCO Africa has rolled out a series of School Activations aimed at inculcating a culture of healthy and safe living amongst young learners to scale up hand hygiene, especially through handwashing with Gental Care Hand wash.
BIDCO Africa today visited schools in Nairobi and Kiambu Counties with donations of Gental Care Hand Wash in a campaign dubbed: Spread Love, Not Germs. In this dispensation, BIDCO seeks to create hand washing heroes in schools through learner friendly games and competitions involving posters using manila papers, creating teams within each class to keep the messaging and student population educated on the importance of hand washing with Gental Care.
Speaking this morning at State House Girls School in Nairobi, BIDCO’s Head of Corporate PR & Communications, John Lawrence explained that through talks and live demo forums with teachers, non-teaching staff plus the learners, the Thika Based Manufacturer wants all children to demonstrate how to responsibly use Gental Care in school and at home to promote caring for themselves and loved ones.
“Handwashing with soap and water is not only simple and inexpensive, but also can significantly reduce the number of young children who get sick due to lack of proper hygiene. Our Activations are aimed at raising awareness about healthy and hygienic practices including the importance of handwashing with soap as an easy, effective and affordable way to prevent diseases and save lives,” said John.
On the launch day alone, BIDCO working closely with local schools and communities in Kiambu and Nairobi through their awareness-raising sessions, handwashing demonstrations and Donations have managed to reach up to 5,000 students, parents and school faculty within Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Education institutions.
BIDCO believes that learning being a continuous process, everyone within the schools must understand and appreciate that handwashing helps them and their communities stay healthy. The campaign which is running for a week seeks to encourage learners to adopt hand washing and make it a habit to wash hands with soap regularly and communicate messages of good behaviour change.
Whereas children and schools play a key role in spreading greater awareness about health and hygiene, WHO explains that disease causing germs are spread when people do not wash their hands with soap and clean running water.
According to the State House Girls’ School Principal Mrs Nabukwesi Evelyn, as schools reopen, there is need to re-emphasize that handwashing is so important now more than ever.
“The learners must understand that gone are the days when we could only wash our hands at key times such as after using the toilets, when preparing food, before eating, and after coughing, sneezing, or blowing your nose, today handwashing has become part and parcel of our life, said Mrs Nabukwesi
The School Captain, Otieno Merine Awuor reiterated her teacher’s message stating that whereas they were initially afraid of returning to school, the measures that the school administration has put in place make them feel safe.
We have over 45 handwashing stations within the school premises and for sure, one does not have a reason not to wash their hands.
“The number of students per class has been reduced from 60 to 20, with lots of physical distancing even in the dormitories where we now only stay 6 students per room,” Awuor added.
Among the learning institutions visited by East Africa’s largest manufacturers of Fast Moving Consumer Goods include Thika School for the Visually Impaired and Githunguri Primary School. During the activations, workshops are first conducted with the school’s staff before meeting all learners at the open assembly in the presence of the school administration
“We are running a students’ driven campaign by not only teaching them how to wash hands but also creating devolved units amongst the students by diving them into groups for Hand Washing Demos that then Create Hand Washing Heroes to disseminate the message of hand washing with Gental Care,’ narrated Anne Muiruri the Category Lead for Home and Personal Care Products at BIDCO.
“Our goal of enhancing Happy Healthy Living amongst our communities must start with the young and most vulnerable persons. That is why we are keenly working with the non-teaching staff as well to make sure that no one is left behind,” added Anne.
As Kenya struggles with fears of a possible second COVID-19 wave, BIDCO strongly believes that certain changes that the world has adopted could be here to stay and practices like effective hand-washing remains the simplest ways to prevent the spread of any virus to ensure a happy healthy and safe living.