KARACHI – This Global Handwashing Day, Dettol, one of Pakistan’s leading Germ-kill brand, partnered with The Citizens Foundation (“TCF”) to support the cause of education and specifically hygiene education to educate the school going kids on the importance of hand washing with soap. As part of this collaboration, Dettol will also fund a TCF classroom for a year for the less privileged children and encourages all its consumers to support TCF in providing education nationwide.
The collaboration kickstarted through a hygiene education session at TCF Qayyumabad Campus on Global Handwashing Day where Dettol also released its new anthem to stress the importance of handwashing and instilling this habit amongst all kids. The anthem further highlights how the simple act of handwashing as an activity can lead to a healthy Pakistan. Key notable attendees of the event included Kashan Hasan (CEO, Reckitt Pakistan), Mike Nithavrianakis (British Deputy High Commissioner), Ateed Riaz (Co-Founder and Chairman, TCF) and Humayun Farooq (Marketing Director, Reckitt Pakistan).
In reference to the new partnership, Kashan Hasan stated, “This Global Handwashing Day, we are proud to be partnering with the country’s largest NGO and school network for the cause of handwashing. The learnings from 2020 has reiterated the need for collective action towards ensuring hand hygiene more than ever. As we enter a new normal, beyond COVID-19, handwashing with soap is the easiest and simplest way to ensure one’s safety and that’s exactly what we are working towards as Dettol.”
Co-Founder and Chairman of The Citizens Foundation, Ateed Riaz remarked, “Providing TCF children hygiene literacy and practices has always been an important component of our education. With 275,000 young students attending our network of schools, we welcome Dettol’s efforts to actively promote the importance of prevention over cure through a simple act; hand-washing.”
Speaking about the partnership, British Deputy High Commissioner, Mike Nithavrianakis stated, “Reckitt is playing such a vital role in helping create awareness about disease control and the importance of good hygiene, while also impacting the lives of so many across Pakistan. @UKinPakistan is thrilled to be supporting this campaign.”
TCF is Pakistan’s largest NGO providing access to education. TCF has a network of 1,687 operational school units, which provide education to 275,000 students. Diarrhea and pneumonia are leading causes of death for children under the age of five. Handwashing with soap is among the most effective and inexpensive ways to prevent these diseases. This simple behavior can save lives, cutting diarrhea by almost one-half and acute respiratory infections by nearly one-quarter.
