On Global Handwashing Day, Sesame Workshop India is launching hand hygiene campaign
On Global Handwashing Day, Sesame Workshop India to start hand hygiene campaign in partnership with the Hygiene and Behaviour Change Coalition (HBCC)
With support from the Hygiene and Behaviour Change Coalition (HBCC), a collaboration between Unilever and the UK Government’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), Sesame Workshop India is aiming to reach more than 20 million individuals through digital channels including YouTube, Facebook and Instagram and over 15 million individuals through radio with sustainable behaviour change communication to improve hygiene and disease prevention practices with messages in Hindi, Telugu, Tamil and Marathi.
Hyderabad: October 15: Today on Global Handwashing Day, Sesame Workshop India, the non-profit educational media organization behind Sesame Street, is launching a campaign with support from the Hygiene and Behaviour Change Coalition, a collaboration between Unilever and the UK Government’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), to drive awareness of good hygiene & disease prevention practices. The multi-media campaign supports the Global Handwashing Day theme of “H is for Handwashing”.
The Hygiene and Behaviour Change Coalition (HBCC) was formed in 2020 by Unilever and the UK Government’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO). It was developed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, to limit the spread of the virus in low and middle-income countries and has reached over 1 billion people with lifesaving behaviour-change messaging, hygiene products and access to training and education. Sesame Workshop, the parent organization of Sesame Workshop India, joined the HBCC coalition to support the physical and mental health of children and families amid the pandemic.
Talking about the organization’s work with children in the space of health and hygiene, Sonali Khan, Managing Director, Sesame Workshop India said “Our goal is to promote hygiene knowledge, attitudes and practices among children and families and meet the developmental needs of children. Through the Hygiene Behaviour Change Coalition, we’re scaling our efforts to reach more children and families with critical health and hygiene knowledge.”
The huge scope and the deployment of the HBCC programme would not have been possible without the close collaboration of the public and private sectors. Unilever’s partnership with the FCDO, supported by academic experts in behaviour change and WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), represents the UK’s largest public–private partnership established to help slow the spread of the virus in vulnerable countries. The FCDO was well positioned to respond quickly through its network of embassies and high commissions, as well as existing partnerships. With resources and expertise in humanitarian programme delivery, they could help to rapidly deploy a global program. Coupled with Unilever’s long history of promoting health hygiene practices and expertise in mass media and campaign delivery, this was an effective partnership to reach the lives of young children through Sesame Workshop India.
Over the last 16 years, Sesame Workshop India has been reaching children and families via community initiatives, Doordarshan network on TV and YouTube and other social media channels to have a measurable impact on the overall health and development of children.
About the Hygiene & Behaviour Change Coalition (HBCC):
The Hygiene and Behaviour Change Coalition (HBCC) is an award-winning public-private partnership founded by Unilever and the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO). Following the declaration of a global pandemic in March 2020, the HBCC mounted a rapid response to limit the spread of COVID-19 through a novel combination of government funding with in-kind support from a private sector partner. Between 2020 – 2021 this up to £100 million programme, delivered by 21 NGO’s and UN agencies working in 37 low- and middle-income countries, reached over 1 billion people with lifesaving behaviour-change messaging, hygiene products and access to training and education.
In early 2022 the HBCC was extended with additional grant funding of up to £20 million in response to Omicron and other new COVID-19 variants. This second round of the HBCC is designed to support preparedness for future health-related outbreaks by strengthening local capacity. Working across 18 countries the programme also combines measures to tackle vaccine hesitancy and encourage vaccine uptake where appropriate.