In 2021, diarrhoea and pneumonia were the cause of more than a quarter of all deaths occurring in Indonesian children under the age of one. But integrated interventions that begin at birth, including handwashing with soap, good nutrition and vaccination, could help to protect against these diseases.
That’s why Lifebuoy has joined forces with Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, and the Power of Nutrition – the charitable foundation – with the support of the Indonesian government, to create a programme that will draw on each partner’s expertise, with the aim of saving children’s lives.
The $8 million fund, which was boosted by matched funding from the federal government of the Netherlands, shall be used to empower and educate mother and father and care-givers of younger kids, serving to them to make easy, constructive well being selections.
With the purpose of enhancing the outcomes of 1 million kids below the age of 5, the programme builds on classes learnt from an present partnership between Gavi and Unilever in rural India. The unique undertaking raised parental consciousness and drove behaviour change in direction of hygiene and early childhood vaccination, resulting in a fivefold enhance in incidental handwashing with cleaning soap, and a major enhance in routine immunisation in opposition to illnesses comparable to rubella, measles and rotavirus.
“I’m delighted that Lifebuoy and Gavi are actually launching a wholesome vitamin programme, alongside our long-standing handwashing and childhood vaccine programmes, to assist in giving kids in Indonesia the most effective begin in life,” stated Hanneke Faber, President of Vitamin at Unilever.
