Dettol Nigeria in partnership with Wellbeing Foundation Africa (WBFA) has organized an event to publicly present its Impact assessment from the 2022/2023 Dettol Hygiene Quest educational programme in schools, communities, and healthcare facilities.
The event saw the appointment of student ambassadors who will continue to champion hygiene education in their schools with support from their teachers.
According to a recent WASHNORM report by the Minister of Water resources, only “8% of the population practices safe handwashing.” With a population of over 200m in Nigeria, these statistics are dire with children under 5 years the most affected from diseases like diarrhoea and cholera; it is why this conversation is very necessary.
For this phase, Dettol Nigeria and the Wellbeing Foundation Africa took the Hygiene Quest curriculum to 3 states across Nigeria reaching School kids, Households within the communities, and Pregnant women in Health care facilities over the course of 10 months.
Speaking on the project, Head of External Communications and Partnerships, Reckitt Sub-Saharan Africa, Cassandra Uzo-Ogbugh said “Our Impact assessment done by measuring partners, Slum and Rural Health Initiative shows amongst other positive impact, that we were able to achieve a 31.9% Increase in excellent knowledge in Handwash amongst School children, a 40.9% increase in excellent practice of handwashing and hygiene amongst Community Members and a 38.6% significant increase in excellent hygiene knowledge amongst pregnant women in health care facilities.”
“In the pilot phase of the Hygiene Quest in Nigeria in 2021, we had achieved a significant impact of a 34% increase in knowledge of proper handwashing, and a 7% reduction in diarrhoea amongst the participants after the intervention.”
While expressing the company’s optimism for the partnership, he said: “I’ll like to thank our partners Wellbeing Foundation Africa SLUM AND RURAL HEALTH INITIATIVE NETWORK Initiative, the Reckitt Global Social Impact team Susannah Herbert Hamzah Sarwar Howard Deans and all the Government stakeholders who contributed immensely to these achievements.”
“At Reckitt, we are driven by our purpose, which is to protect, heal and nurture in the relentless pursuit of a cleaner and healthier world. Reckitt’s commitment to Nigeria has been and continues to support efforts that promote the health and well-being of Nigerians.
“Regardless of these great results, we are not relenting. Dettol’s commitment to promoting hygiene education remains unwavering, our goal in Nigeria is to reach 6 million school children by 2025 with the Hygiene Quest curriculum,” he added.
