Zimbabwe cannot continue to lose children to preventable infections due to lack of hygiene awareness, a Government official has said.Director of Environmental Health Services in the Ministry of Health and Child Care Mr Goldberg Mangwadu made the remarks during the Global Hand. Washing Day Commemorations held at Chitsere Primary School in Harare yesterday.
“Hand washing with soap is a simple action, but one that can make a big difference. I want everyone to stop, listen and act.
“Hand washing with soap is a simple solution to our nation’s health challenges — and we should ensure we spread the message as we commemorate 2015 Global Hand Washing Day,” he said.
The celebrations were courtesy of Unilever’s health soap Lifebuoy.
To mark the occasion, Unilever educated pupils at Chitsere Primary School in Mbare on the importance of hand washing with soap, as part of its Help A Child Reach 5 Campaign to end preventable deaths of children under five years.
Every year more than 3.5 million children worldwide die before they reach the age of five because of diarrhoea and pneumonia.
Unilever acting country manager Mr Anele Zunga said it was important to practice cleanliness to prevent child and infant deaths.“Unilever launched the Lifebuoy School of 5 programme earlier this year to help educate children and communities on the importance of hand washing with soap.
“We believe business has a role to play through developing sustainable solutions to issues affecting communities and that is what we are doing by raising awareness and changing people’s hand washing behaviour,” he said.
Mr Zunga said from the beginning of the year, Unilever had reached out to 46 000 children from Chitungwiza, Machipisa, Mbare, Kuwadzana and Mabvuku.
The Global Hand Washing Day is commemorated on October 15 every year. This year’s celebrations ran under the theme, “Help a Child Reach 5”.