‘Help a Child Reach 5’ with Lifebuoy hand wash

Unilever Sri Lanka team together with the Keells team and Lifebuoy Brand Ambassador Kumar Sangakkara

Lifebuoy as a part of their continuous effort in helping communities around the world to improve hygiene through hand washing, recently announced their latest venture under the ‘Help a Child Reach 5’ campaign. This year, in anticipation of Global Handwashing Day 2015, Lifebuoy ‘Help a Child Reach 5’ partnered with Keells Super and Lifebuoy’s Brand Ambassador – Kumar Sangakkara.

‘Help a Child Reach 5’ is Lifebuoy’s mission to ensure a child reaches the age of 5 by promoting good hand washing habits. To promote the cause, through the new partnership Lifebuoy will donate Rs. 5 from every Lifebuoy hand wash sold from a Keells Super towards a school hand hygiene program in Sri Lanka. 

Unilever Sri Lanka Marketing Director – Personal Care Sharmila Bandara said, “Over 1.7 million children around the world today do not reach the age of 5 due diseases such as diarrhea and pneumonia. Many of these premature deaths can be prevented with adequate sanitation and simple hand washing habits. Through Lifebuoy, we commit to educating parents and children on the importance of practicing good hygiene and hand washing habits which would reduce their chances of contracting these life-threatening diseases. With this campaign, we hope to create awareness on this pressing issue and help further promote the cause.”

Commenting on the launch of the campaign Kumar Sangakkara said, “I support Lifebuoy’s ‘Help a Child Reach 5’ campaign simply because it is for a worthy cause. As a parent there is nothing that gives me more joy than seeing my children healthy and happy always. Unfortunately, millions of parents around the world do not have the same privilege, often because of the lack of hygiene awareness. Hand washing with soap is a simple action, but one that can make a big difference and can saves the lives of many children and adults alike. Join me in helping spread the message for the sake of your future and mine, our children.”

Speaking at the launch event, John Keells Holdings PLC Executive Vice President and Sector Head – Retail Charitha Subasinghe commented, “We at Keells Super are very happy to partner Unilever and Lifebuoy to launch this campaign to commemorate World Hand Wash Day. All our endeavours at Keells Super are focused on our valued customers, and the communities that we operate in. The partnership with Lifebuoy is a community project which will help us to engage our valued customers in helping to uplift the hygienic standards of children.  We appreciate that Lifebuoy has developed this fabulous campaign, targeted towards uplifting the hygiene standards of school children. We at Keells Super pledge to create maximum awareness and encourage customers to participle in this campaign.”

Lifebuoy runs the world’s largest hygiene behaviour change program and has already reached over 257 million people across 24 countries since 2010. Sri Lanka too Lifebuoy is committed to spreading the global hand washing message and continuously invests in dedicated local projects.