We normally don’t pay too much attention to soaps unless they are from Korea and promise to make us reverse aging and get rid of blemishes in a single wash! However, we are here to tell you about a rather mundane bar of soap that doesn’t have any magical properties but it has helped save the lives of more than 600,000 children around the world over the past 5 years.
Sponsored post: How a humble bar of soap saved the lives of 600,000 kidsSponsored post: How a humble bar of soap saved the lives of 600,000 kids
In 2008, Unilever owned healthcare brand Lifebuoy co-launched a worldwide initiative called the Global Handwashing Day as part of its Help a Child Reach 5 program. The program was founded after it was found that more than 1.1 million kids were dying annually because of diarrheal diseases that could have been prevented simply by the act of washing hands with soap.
Research also found that less than 2 percent of all parents in the populations most affected by these afflictions knew that washing hands with soap could prevent the deaths of kids under 5 years of age from such causes. Through an extensive on the ground education and charity program, the Help a Child Reach 5 initiative has saved more than 600,000 children around the world live to see their 5th birthdays.
The company has created a special social media campaign this year called “Lifebuoy presents Gondappa” to celebrate this special fact. Through this campaign, the company tells us the story of a farmer called Gondappa from the small village of Thesgora in the Southern part of India. Gondappa walks for miles on his hands alone to celebrate his son’s fifth birthday.
What made Gondappa so jubilant was the fact that this was the first time that one of his kids has lived past this age as others had perished from diarrheal diseases in their infancy. As exhilarating as the story of Gondappa and his son is, it is a small reflection of the achievement of the program globally. Through this new campaign, the company wants to spread awareness about handwashing even further and have asked the general public to take a pledge and spread the word through their social networks.