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The Wellbeing Foundation Africa and Dettol Partner to Accelerate Target Impact of the Hygiene Quest Program in Schools, Healthcare Facilities and Communities


Wellbeing Foundation Africa (WBFA) and global hygiene brand, Reckitt through its Dettol brand in Nigeria on Thursday, 13th October 2022 announced the official flag-off of the Dettol Hygiene Quest and WBFA collaboration at a Public Presentation and Launch of Partnership event in Lagos state in a strategic coincidence with the 2022 Global Handwashing Day Campaign.

In attendance at the launch, were representatives from the Ministry of Health, the State Basic Education Fund, the Ministry of Environment and Water Resources, the Standard Organisation of Nigeria, the State Ministry of Youth and Social Development, the State Primary Health Care Board, Leaders from both organizations and Stakeholders in education, and health from Lagos, Kwara and FCT Abuja.

This joint effort will bring together the dynamic and timely material of the Dettol Hygiene Quest program and curricula with WBFA’s current Primary and Adolescent PSHE-WASH in Schools program in addition to its broader Mamacare community and health facility networks in Lagos, Kwara State and FCT Abuja across Nigeria thus accelerating the Hygiene Quest program to meet its outcome and targets for 2022 and beyond.

WBFA is collaborating with Reckitt on its journey to reach 6 million children in Nigeria by 2025, through educating and aiding behavioural change in children's and adolescent’s hygiene habits thereby reducing the incidence of illness and sick days from school, which will have a profound generational impact on their health, education, and development.

Other stakeholders present at the stakeholder event include Royal Fathers, His Royal Majesty, Oba Ghalib Adeniyi-Rufai, Olojo of Ojo Kingdom, representatives of Lagos State Waste Management Agency, Lagos State Water Regulatory Commission, and National Association of Nurses and Midwives who pledged their support to both organizations on the Hygiene Quest Program.

Ahead of the 2022 Global Hand Washing Day, which is celebrated annually on the 15th of October, the public presentation of the merged curricula provided an opportunity for key stakeholders present including school principals, and students to review and share feedback on the merged curricula.

Speaking at the launch on behalf of the WBFA’s Founder- President, Her Excellency, Mrs Toyin Saraki, Dr Franco Apiyantiede, National Programs Lead, WBFA said, “The Foundation believes in sustainability,  leveraging on existing structures,  ensuring sustainability in all projects we implement. We look forward to extending the partnership’s impact by collaborating with all pertinent existing structures. Over time, this collaboration will address, the hygiene and needs, sanitation across Nigeria.”

Speaking on the partnership at the event, Head of External Communications and Partnerships, Reckitt Sub-Saharan Africa, Cassandra Uzo-Ogbugh, on behalf of the General Manager, Reckitt Sub Saharan Africa, Akbar Ali Shah, expressed the company's optimism for the partnership. “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. This partnership will not only aid Reckitt's goal of reaching 6 million Nigerian children by 2025 with behavioral changing education, it will also provide a whole new avenue for decreasing the current child mortality rate caused by hygiene-related issues”. She continued, “We believe that Wellbeing Foundation Africa's track record and goals on WASH in Nigeria make them a strategic partner with a shared vision to educate, and prevent the transmission of hygiene-related diseases”.

As an extension to its Mamacare Antenatal and Postnatal Education programme, in 2015 WBFA launched a WASH campaign using the London School of Tropical Medicine’s TEACH CLEAN training package. A few years on, In 2018, WBFA launched its Adolescent Skills and Drills Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE) programme which also covers the Foundation’s commitment to ensuring the availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for children, aged between 8 and 17 years old. The Wellbeing Foundation Africa endorses the Clean Nigeria Campaign, which seeks to build a greater level of awareness and achieve behavioural change amongst Nigerians, such that will lead to more hygienic practices and ultimately, a healthier population.

The official unveiling which is considered a major deliverable towards implementing the WBFA-Reckitt Accelerate Hygiene Quest program over the next 12 months was followed by a simultaneous Global Handwashing Day outreach in Lagos Island Maternity Hospital, Lagos, General Hospital, Ilorin, Kwara State, and Durumi IDP Camp, FCT Abuja, Nigeria.

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