Unilever health soap brand, Lifebuoy, will attempt to break a Guinness World record for gathering people from a minimum of 50 nationalities to wash their hands simultaneously in Dubai next month.

The event which falls on October 10 is in line with the 5th anniversary of Global Hand-washing Day (GHD), a day co-founded by Lifebuoy.

It is being held to raise awareness about the importance of hand-washing in saving lives, a statement from the company said.

For the past three years, Lifebouy has been running a school-oriented health and hygiene initiative. With the support of Dubai Municipality, this year alone, Lifebuoy will reach 500,000 students, aged between five to 12 years of age, across 600 schools in UAE, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Bahrain.

This campaign was launched in the region in 2010, where 100,000 children were reached in UAE, Oman and Kuwait. Additionally in 2011, Unilever has managed to reach 200,000 in the Gulf region.

“We know from clinical research that hand-washing with soap at key occasions can reduce the risk of diarrhoea by up to approximately 45 per cent. The main objective behind this campaign is to motivate and mobilise millions around the world to wash their hands with soap. Hand-washing with soap is the single most effective and inexpensive way to prevent diarrhea and acute respiratory infections (ARI), as automatic behaviour performed in homes, schools, and communities worldwide,” said Vaibhav Kumar, the marketing director of personal care – Unilever Gulf.

“Everyone, even the public has a role to play in helping spread the hand-washing message,” he said. “Lifebuoy is asking the people of UAE to support the cause by pledging to ‘help a child reach their fifth birthday’. For every pledge, we will teach the lifesaving habit to one more child through our hand-washing behaviour change programmes.”

Turning hand-washing with soap before eating and after using the toilet into an ingrained habit was projected to save more lives than any single vaccine or medical intervention, cutting deaths from diarrhoea by almost half and deaths from acute respiratory infections by one-quarter.

“Over the past two years, Lifebuoy has successfully changed the hand-washing behaviour of 48 million people – edging towards its goal to reach one billion people by 2015. With the support of Unilever, Lifebuoy aims to bring Global Handwashing Day to a wider audience and influence government policy, to make hygiene behaviour change education part of every school curriculum,” Vaibhav added.

The Global Hand-washing Day took place for the first time on October 15, 2008, the date appointed by UN General Assembly in accordance with year 2008 as the International Year of Sanitation.

Each year, over 200 million people are involved in celebrations in over 100 countries around the world. Global Hand-washing is endorsed by a wide array of governments, international institutions, civil society organisations, NGOs, private companies, and individuals.

Scheduled on October 15 of each year, the day is dedicated to highlighting hand-washing with soap as an essential approach to prevent diseases.

Improving the health and hygiene levels of more than a billion people is one pillar of the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan, which aims to achieve all of its goals in the coming few years, the statement said.

The event is being held in collaboration with Dubai Municipality.– TradeArabia News Service