Media Release

22 November 2017

Dettol soap letters to bring joy on Global Handwashing Day

This year, Dettol is celebrating Global Handwashing Day with a fun, interactive and personal campaign. The brand, a leader in germ protection, has embarked on a six-week campaign called “Letter for Life” and will visit 60 schools in Gauteng where learners will be ‘gifting’ soap letters to learners from a pre-selected partner school on Global Handwashing Day These soap letters will be written by learners before being coated with liquid soap and dried.

Following the soap letter exchange, each learner will read the letter and then use it to wash their hands at a hand wash station. The Dettol mascot, Captain Dettol will also be doing his rounds at schools to deliver the soap letters and share the value of handwashing with the learners.

The campaign will culminate in a celebration on 13 October, commemorating Global Handwashing Day on the 15 October.

Handwashing can reduce the risk of communicable diseases by up to 59%, preventing a million deaths a year.1

It is estimated that washing hands with soap and water could reduce diarrhoeal disease-associated deaths by up to 50%. 2

Contributing to 272 million lost school days per year1, diarrhoea has an enormousimpact on family life, healthcare systems and society around the world. More childrendie per day due to diarrhoeal diseases than from AIDS, malaria and measles combinedyet simple hygiene practices both at home and at school can help to break the chainof infection.3

Jorge Guil, Marketing Director, Reckitt Benckiser South Africa says, “Poor hygiene practices can lead to children missing school, and also unnecessary illness and sometimes death. This can all be prevented by washing hands.“The “letter for life” is about children encouraging each other to wash their hands and stay healthy. This campaign can save lives.”

For decades, Dettol has been running ongoing health and hygiene programmes across South Africa.

1 Centres for disease control and prevention: Hand hygiene fast facts. Available at: www.cdc.gov/healthywater/hygiene/fast_facts.html2 Centres for disease control and prevention: Hand hygiene fast facts. Available at: www.cdc.gov/healthywater/hygiene/fast_facts.html3 Global Hygiene Council Making Common Infections Uncommon Study 2015

New mums are educated from the birth of their child on healthy hygiene habits across various milestones of their new baby’s life. About 600 000 new mums have gone through the programme in public hospitals and clinics.

For children, with the help of Captain Dettol and his friends, learners are led in song and script to learn the importance of washing their hands. Dettol has reached 155 schools and 100 000 learners with this programme. A partnership with the PnP School Club has been instrumental in educating learners on good hygiene. Dettol owns the Life Orientation curriculum for learners across different grades and has reached 2300 schools and 1.5 million learners to date.

Ends.