By Chinyere Anyanwu
Dettol Nigeria has announced plans for the commencement of its 2021 Dettol School Hygiene Education Programme, an SDG 6 initiative under the Dettol Clean Naija campaign aimed at creating awareness, educating and encouraging primary school pupils to inculcate hygienic practices in their daily lives.
The announcement was made during the Dettol School Hygiene stakeholders’ workshop recently in Lagos. The workshop served as a forum where key stakeholders in the Lagos State education sector were informed about the 2021 programme vision, as well as the implementation of the programme in primary schools across the state.
For the 2021 edition, Dettol has introduced big and exciting additions to the programme. The first is the specially developed hygiene curriculum created by the Dettol international, team consisting of comics and worksheets that aim to convey the hygiene message to pupils in a fun and engaging manner. The second addition is the introduction of the programme impact assessment, which will see Dettol use scientific measurement tools to determine the impact of its hygiene education on the pupils, their teachers and parents. Also, in line with Sustainable Developmental Goal 17, partnerships for the goals, Dettol has partnered with the Lagos State office on SDGs, Dean Initiative, World’s Largest Lesson and Slum and Rural Health Initiative (SRHIN) to help drive the programme implementation and adoption.
The General Manager, Reckitt Sub-Saharan Africa, Mr. Akbar Ali Shah, stated that, “with Dettol, our purpose is to protect life by making good hygiene simple to adopt. Over the past six years, we have directly reached over five million primary school children in Nigeria with our hygiene education. However, with the need for an intensified hygiene consciousness due to COVID-19, we are evolving from a model where we had just a one-off contact with the students to one where there will be repeated interactions based on lessons from the hygiene curriculum.”
He said Dettol, “emphasises the need to enable a sanitised environment and to create the importance of water, hygiene and sanitation in preventing the spread of infection among children. We recognise this is an enormous task and we acknowledge the immense contribution that our partners, Lagos State office on the SDGs, Dean Initiative, World’s Largest Lesson, and SRHIN will bring to this campaign.”
During his speech at the event, the Senior Special Assistant on SDGs to the Lagos State Governor, Mr. Lekan Fatodu, stated that, “statistics have shown that half of all general practitioner consultations and 12 per cent of all hospitalisations among children aged 0 to 14 years are from infections. Hence, I am enthusiastic to see the huge benefits the knowledge shared here today will have on the physical wellbeing of our pupils. I thank and appreciate Dettol Nigeria who have partnered with the Dean Initiative for the overall wellbeing of school children and I charge all our stakeholders and school executives to help ensure the success of this initiative.”
The chairman, Lagos State Universal Basic Education Board, Wahab Alawiye-King, in his goodwill message said, “it is an inestimable honour to be part of this great occasion, which has brought together key actors from different sectors to explore and commit to the challenge of making our schools WASH-friendly. Our priority to advance access to education and learning outcomes by providing a safe, inclusive and equitable learning environment highlights the significance of this workshop and as such, I want to appreciate the organisers of this event, Dettol Nigeria and their partners, DEAN Initiative, for this impressive outreach.”
The Dettol Clean Naija Initiative was created by Dettol Nigeria as an integrated multi-level campaign aimed at creating awareness, education and driving hygiene behavioural change to achieve a cleaner and healthier Nigeria.