Wazzup Pilipinas!
Unilever Philippines and its leading household cleaning brand, Domex, spearheaded the annual celebration of World Toilet Day with a series of activities, including the launch of Germ Busters—teams of public health workers who will help maintain safe, germ-free public rest rooms while educating people on how diseases can be prevented through proper sanitation.
Domex’s celebration of World Toilet Day 2013 is part of the recently launched One Million Clean Toilets Movement, an advocacy campaign geared towards collecting a total one million pledges from private households to conscientiously maintain their own clean, safe, and hygienic bathrooms by the next World Toilet Day in November 2014.
Highlights of the event, which calls for nationwide action to sanitize toilets, included a turnover of cleaning kits to and pledge of commitment among Germ Busters from the PPHA and a ceremonial clean up at one of the city hall’s public comfort rooms. The event was attended by top officials and representatives of program partners Unilever Philippines, the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) and the Philippine Public Health Association (PPHA).
“We are excited with the launch of Germ Busters because they will help ensure germ-free toilets by cleaning hundreds of communal toilets in Metro Manila’s public schools, government hospitals and offices using Domex,” said Dennis Chua, Domex Brand Manager.
“This is in line with our commitment to help solve and make a real impact on the sanitation problem in the country,” said Chua, noting that among the Millennium Development Goals set by the United Nations, basic sanitation targets continue to lag the furthest behind.
Poor sanitation and health scenario
World Toilet Day, observed annually on November 19, focuses on the estimated 2.5 billion people, one third of the world’s population, who do not have access to safe, clean toilets. Poor sanitation is the leading cause of diarrhea which results in more than 1 million childhood deaths worldwide.
In the Philippines, diarrhea is the 3rd leading cause of illness and the 4th leading cause of deaths among children under 5. Every year, approximately 3,420 of these children die from the disease because of their lower immunity and 3,000 cases would have been prevented if they had access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene.
One Million Clean Toilets Movement
Those who will pledge to support the One Million Clean Toilets Movement via the Domex Philippines FB Page (facebook.com/DomexPhilippines) will also help grow a global fund to improve access to basic sanitation in areas of need all over the world as Domex will donate P5 to UNICEF’s Sanitation Program for every pledge received.
In response to the widespread devastation of Typhoon Yolanda in the Visayas and Mindanao regions where more than 12 million people are affected, UNICEF, with the help of Unilever Philippines, has mobilized its staff to carry out technical assessment missions and provide much-needed water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) interventions.
UNICEF is working closely with the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, United Nations agencies and international and national non-government organizations in doing tests and treatment of water supplies, together with other WASH activities, to prevent the outbreak of diseases.
We use domex in cleaning our house
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