Dettol On A Mission for Hygiene!

School programme to educate young Malaysians about hygiene habits for better health

Assalamualaikum!

Malaysia’s No.1 Germ Protection brand*, Dettol and the Ministry of Education jointly kicked off the ‘Mission for Hygiene’ school programme at Sekolah Kebangsaan Seksyen 7 Shah Alam today. Currently in its fourth year running, the programme aims to promote healthy hygiene habits among school children by actively educating them to practice hygiene habits in school and at home. This includes playing a part in keeping their school a clean, healthy and safe environment for the school community.

Present at the programme’s opening ceremony was Tiffany Tang, Marketing Director of Reckitt Benckiser Malaysia and Singapore, which manufactures and markets Dettol products in these countries. She said: “As a leading global hygiene brand, Dettol is proud to be the trusted hygiene champion for mothers around the world, to help her protect her family from harmful germs through our wide range of innovative germ-protection products. We understand how good hygiene and sanitation can improve individual and public health. This is why it is important for Dettol to lead hand hygiene education from young age.

According to Tang, the brand is an advocate of hygiene education worldwide through its partnership with Save the Children, a non-government organisation (NGO) to stop children in underdeveloped countries from dying of diarrhea due to poor hygiene and sanitation.

Tiffany Tang, Marketing Director of Reckitt Benckiser Malaysia and Singapore is sharing about Dettol’s initiative to educate the school children of the importance of good hygiene at Dettol’s Mission for Hygiene launch

“In Malaysia, ‘Mission for Hygiene’ has seen us reached close to 350,000 school students over the last four years, and together with the Ministry of Education, we have continuously enhance the quality of hygiene education in participating schools with the involvement of parents. In the next 10 years, we aim to reach all of 2.7 million primary school children in Malaysia,” added Tang.

She continued, “We strongly believe that one should start young in terms of practicing good hygiene habits. Dettol ‘Mission for Hygiene’ programme is designed to educate school children the importance of good hygiene habits including 7 steps of hand washing. We hope this will help to raise the awareness of Hand Foot Mouth Disease in Malaysia and how hygiene practices can keep it at bay.”

As the brand is working actively towards expanding the campaign to more schools, Dettol aims to reach another 150,000 students in 200 primary schools and 50 kindergartens in Malaysia throughout the year of 2017.

Dettol understands that keeping the school compound clean and germ-free is vital for students to have a good learning environment. This year, participating primary schools are encouraged to conduct a series of ‘Gotong Royong’ (communal cooperation) activities related to toilet cleanliness. Schools taking part in the ‘Gotong Royong’ contest will submit ‘before’ and ‘after’ photos of their toilets. They are also required to create a Dettol logo mural in front of the school’s toilet with Dettol’s ‘Mission for Hygiene’ theme: Better Hygiene, Better Health that will serve as a reminder to the school children to wash their hands.

Y.B Tuan P. Kamalanathan, Deputy Minister of Ministry of Education talks about the importance of school hygiene and the students’ roles in making Dettol’s ‘Mission for Hygiene’ a success

During the opening ceremony, YB Dato' P. Kamalanathan, Deputy Minister of Education, stressed the importance of school hygiene and the students’ roles in making Dettol’s ‘Mission for Hygiene’ a success. “Studies have shown that the school environment can affect attendance rate and student achievement. Therefore, it is imperative for schools to be tidy and clean, in order to provide students a conducive learning environment.

Good hygiene habits should be propagated in the school curriculum to prevent harmful germs spread in the classroom environment. Poor hygiene habits will lead to harbouring germs on their hands transmit to places they touch at school. This will lead to absenteeism, which then affects our students’ learning momentum and progress,” he said. 

“It’s crucial to practice good hygiene habits at school to prevent harmful micro-organisms from spreading around. Besides regular efforts from the school administration and our hardworking janitors, our students must also learn to play their respective roles in keeping their school environment clean and healthy. From a young age, we need to cultivate personal hygiene habits, and slowly but surely, guide them towards taking the initiative to wash their hands before meals, flush after using the toilet, help clean the classroom, pick up litter in common areas, and so on. These small efforts will make a big difference in helping to prevent the spreading of germs, so that our schools offer cleaner, healthier environment that promote learning and academic excellence for the leaders of tomorrow,” continued YB Dato' P. Kamalanathan. 

YB Dato’ P. Kamalanathan demonstrate the 7 steps of hand washing to the school children

To promote awareness and encourage participation among the children, Dettol has designed a number of exciting activities, such as: hand hygiene education sketching to engage students so that they understand the importance of hand hygiene; 7 steps of hand washing, which shows them a full demonstration on how to clean their hands properly; goodie bags containing educational leaflets for parents; and continuous reminders at school with posters in toilets and canteens.

YB Dato’ P. Kamalanathan officiated the wall mural of Dettol Mission for Hygiene theme – “Better Hygiene, Better Health” at Sekolah Kebangsaan Seksyen 7, Shah Alam

Better hygiene, better health. With this in mind, Dettol hopes that everyone comes together through its ‘Mission for Hygiene’ programme to play their part in ensuring a cleaner, healthier, and safer school environment for our future generation.

For more information about Dettol, go to www.dettol.com.my