BRANDS COME TOGETHER TO SPREAD HAND-WASHING GOSPEL

COVID-19 has emphasized the importance of basic personal hygiene habits such as hand-washing.

However, as simple as it may seem, a lot of people actually do not know how to wash their hands properly. This is why the United Nations-sanctioned Global Hand-washing Day (GHD), celebrated annually on Oct. 15, exists.

Water solutions provider Maynilad Water Services, Inc. is one of the most active proponents of hand-washing education, even outside of GHD, in the country. For years, it has been running the Daloy Dunong water, sanitation and hygiene (W.A.S.H.) education program for public school students. Its recent iteration, Daloy Dunong Online, shares with public school teachers creative ways to teach W.A.S.H. concepts and applications to their students. But given the urgency and magnitude of the need to educate people about proper hand-washing, the company banded together with like-minded private and public organizations to spread the hand-washing gospel. “Because of the pandemic, it has become more crucial to accelerate efforts to educate people about the importance of proper hand-washing, with the objective of influencing attitudes, changing behaviors and creating hygiene habits that can potentially save lives,” said Maynilad president and CEO Ramoncito Fernandez.

Being part of the MVP group, Maynilad initially sought partnerships with other companies within the conglomerate, then it reached out to the government and medical associations.

Aside from the new partnerships, this year’s GHD campaign also explores a new platform: TikTok. TikTok aims to serve as a tool for education and learning, according to Kristoffer Rada, TikTok head of public policy, Philippines.

Through this partnership, TikTok content creators were mobilized to include hand-washing facts in their posts, together with the hashtag “20secondsdapat,” referring to the minimum length of time that should be spent scrubbing one’s hands with soap.