Dettol promotes children's hygienes

Dettol, the United Kingdom-based disinfectant brand owned by consumer goods giant Reckitt Benckiser Group Plc, has announced a three-year collaboration to help promote children's hygiene in China, through regular hand-washing.

Working with the China Health Education Center, China Internet Information Center and non-governmental organization Save the Children, the project will raise hand-washing awareness among adults and children in more than 100 maternity and children's hospitals, and 10,000 kindergartens.

The project was launched on Oct 14, the day before Global Handwashing Day - a disease-prevention campaign to promote the washing of hands at critical moments throughout each day.

Dettol hopes to spend 1.7 million yuan ($267,295) this year to fund better personal hygiene in poverty-stricken regions, particularly the proper way to wash hands during flu seasons.

It will also focus on raising the need for children to wash their hands when they go back to school after holidays - traditionally a time when infectious diseases spread fastest.

Last year, Dettol's Give Life a Hand campaign visited primary schools, sports clubs and community groups in more than 14 countries around the world, to help teach better hygiene among young people.

Ben Wilson, a marketing executive with Reckitt Benckiser China, said a group of 30 students and teachers from Tongxin Experimental School in Chaoyang district in Beijing have already watched presentations on what are considered the company's "six steps to better hand-washing".

"Through our partners in China, and on the back of Global Handwashing Day, we will form a Dettol Health Experts Committee, and introduce what we are calling the '14-day hand-washing habit-building program'."

Dettol will also use already well-established mobile and social media channels to promote its six-steps video to raise awareness.