ABSTRACT
Lifebuoy is a well-known brand in the countries where our interventions take place. And having this link with Lifebuoy was very helpful in facilitating building confidence with the community and having access, since they knew about the brand and were confident and comfortable with it. A key part of Sightsavers’ intervention involved getting children to wash their faces with soap as a preventative behaviour. However, delivering the hygiene programme in schools at scale was extremely challenging. For help in making that happen, Sightsavers turned to Lifebuoy, a soap brand owned by Unilever. With that legacy, Lifebuoy was well positioned to help public health organisations reduce infectious disease in communities that, like England in 1894, lacked modern sewage treatment. Not surprisingly, handwashing with soap became Lifebuoy’s main theme for public health, and protection from illness has been in Lifebuoy’s DNA for over a century now.
