Unilever Malawi in partnership with Kamuzu Central Hospital (KCH) on Tuesday commemorated Global Handwashing Day with a focus on fighting cholera recurrence in Lilongwe.
The hand hygiene awareness campaign event took place at KCH where Unilever donated soap products worth about K1.7 million.
Unilever Malawi country director Anele Zunga led senior management staff in the commemoration.
He said: “Earlier this year, Malawi had a cholera outbreak which resulted in deaths of lots of people. Despite that, some people still do not understand that a simple act of washing hands with soap is the effective and inexpensive way of preventing diarrhoeal diseases.
“Cholera is a waterborne disease and through the hand washing awareness campaign, we are setting up preventive measures against its recurrence.”
Zunga said Unilever reached out to more than 200 children and patients at KCH, teaching them proper hand washing methods using soap.
KCH director Dr. Jonathan Ngoma appealed to all stakeholders to focus on washing hands with soap as an affordable intervention that can help save millions of lives.
“All stakeholders have a role to play in spreading the hand-washing message. Parents in particular have a crucial role to teach their children hand washing habits while they are still young,” he said.
