Dettol announced on Tuesday its collaboration with the Pakistan Pediatric Association (PPA) and the Infection Control Society of Pakistan (ICSP) to launch its health and hygiene awareness initiative, ‘Mission for Health’ in across Pakistan.
Featuring a robust ‘School Hand-washing Programme’ as well as ‘Hospital Education for New Mothers’, this initiative is aimed at educating one million children and new mothers on the simple ways through which they can lead a healthy life and thus make a progressive Pakistan. This initiative is a further extension of Dettol’s global heritage as the trusted champion of health.
Tahir Malik, general manager of Reckitt Benckiser Pakistan, expressed the need to raise health standards in Pakistan by focusing on basic health hygiene practices. He highlighted the objective of the initiative undertaken by Dettol and how it would result in doctors educating children in schools as well as new mothers in hospitals. Malik’s speech emphasised the importance of regularly washing hands and how it prevents the transmission of germs and diseases. Additionally, Malik, announced Dettol’s Mission for Health’s target to reach out to one million schoolchildren and mothers. Mission for Health is Dettol’s way of reaching out to the masses and giving back to the community.
The event also featured talks by doctors who gave their expert opinion on the importance of hygiene. Dr Amir Jogezai, president of the PPA, spoke at length about the school program that will be rolled out in more than 3,500 schools across the country.
He was thankful to Dettol for giving doctors a chance to spread the message of health, hygiene and happiness throughout the nation. He concluded that schools played an important role in the future of our children and hence stressed on the need to implement good hand hygiene practices.
Besides the ‘School Hand-washing Programme’, Dettol’s Mission for Health also aims to provide new mothers with health and hygiene tips for keeping their child healthy, moments after they enter the world of motherhood through the ‘Hospital Education Programme’.
Dr Zareen Fasih, secretary general of the PPA, was grateful to Dettol for drawing attention to this critical area in the health sector since it had been previously ignored. Dr Zareen was of the opinion that mothers formed the basis of every family; she felt it was best to target women at this early stage of motherhood (especially child birth) because this is the primary and most important stage of motherhood.
Through the above two grass root education initiatives, Dettol’s ‘Mission for Health’ aims to make Pakistan healthier so the country can progress and flourish. This mission is going above and beyond standard hygiene education by reaching out to homes, schools, and families on a personal level, thereby’ raising awareness among the masses on hygiene. The event was attended by an array of professionals, including but not limited to, the medical fraternity, renowned celebrities and the press.
