Why it matters
Our brands can enhance people's health, hygiene and well-being. Yet achieving lasting improvements in health depends on people changing their everyday habits. This is what our hygiene programmes set out to achieve.
The challenge
It has been long understood that simple hygiene habits like washing hands with soap can contribute to the prevention of communicable diseases.
Preventable diseases, resulting from poor hygiene and sanitation, still pose a significant global health challenge. Every year over 3.5 million children die before the age of five because of diarrhoea and acute respiratory infections. One billion people lack access to safe drinking water. Tooth decay and gum disease affect the majority of people in both developed and developing countries.
Much of this is preventable by promoting good hygiene habits in everyday routines. Studies show that handwashing with soap is one of the most effective and inexpensive ways to prevent diarrhoeal diseases. This simple habit could help cut deaths from diarrhoea by almost half and deaths from acute respiratory infections by a quarter. Brushing teeth twice daily with a fluoridated toothpaste helps prevent tooth decay and gum disease.
Making good-quality products such as soap and toothpaste available to consumers is the crucial starting point. Nearly half of Lifebuoy’s sales are in rural Asia and Africa, where many people live on less than US$1 per day and basic hygiene is vital to good health. Yet products alone are often not enough if people do not change their habits. Understanding what triggers improved habits lies at the heart of making sustainable improvements to hygiene. Lifebuoy’s social mission is to bring safety, security and health to 5 billion people through the active promotion of handwashing with soap. The brand has long-standing programmes to support this ambition.
At the same time, we have been at the forefront of developing techniques to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of such programmes.
