In response to a latest UNICEF Report[1], round 818 million youngsters on the earth lack fundamental handwashing amenities at their colleges, which places them at elevated danger of COVID-19 and different transmittable ailments. Furthering its world mission to enhance handwashing behaviour particularly amongst youngsters, Hindustan Unilever Restricted’s primary hygiene cleaning soap model, Lifebuoy kicked-off the most important digital hygiene drive within the Metaverse – Gift of the Ganga. 

 This distinctive Minecraft construct goals to flip germ-breeding air pollution into germ-protection, thereby turning air pollution that’s dangerous into germ safety that’s good.  On ‘Gift of the Ganga’, avid gamers are invited to fish out plastic air pollution from the mighty river recreated within the metaverse. In alternate, Lifebuoy will clear an equal and extra quantity from the precise river. 

 On-ground, in partnership with Swayambhu, a social enterprise and Central Authorities’s Namami Gange Programme, Lifebuoy will roll out plastic waste assortment and upcycling efforts in probably the most bothered components of the river – the Haridwar bend. The plastic collected will probably be supplemented by a segregation strategy of figuring out, classifying, dividing, and sorting in order that it might then be despatched onward for upcycling. To drive consciousness and motion, Lifebuoy additionally encourages bodily participation from individuals from all walks of life to take part within the precise clean-up drive on-ground to volunteer. These can attain out to Swayambhu on 9205642777.

 With Lifebuoy’s single-minded focus to forestall sickness by bettering hygiene behaviours amongst youngsters this plastic as soon as segregated will probably be then upcycled to construct handwashing stations for under-served colleges. By offering entry to handwashing stations with cleaning soap together with the manufacturers confirmed handwashing packages, Lifebuoy will equip 1000’s of kids with probably the most important provision to combat sickness inflicting germs and keep free from infections. In line with our mission to additionally negate any danger to the surroundings, the model has ensured that the upcycled plastic boards used to create handwashing stations will be additional crushed and upcycled greater than 5 instances.

In response to Parnil Sarin, International Model Director, Unilever, “Pollutants of all sorts are breeding grounds for illness causing germs. Combined with the lack of practicing hand hygiene at the right occasions daily, this leads to multiple preventable illnesses in children. Lifebuoy has always believed in going beyond creating a discourse on the importance of soap and hand-hygiene. Year on year the brand stays committed to creating and launching platforms to further amplify and engage people at scale.”  

During the last century, Lifebuoy has been dedicated to constructing hygiene habits for over 1 billion individuals by offering entry to handwashing amenities and educating youngsters and moms by quite a few confirmed and localized packages. The ‘Gift of the Ganga’, is one among Lifebuoy’s largest and most unusual efforts to have interaction with younger gaming audiences and encourage a behavioural shift in the direction of hygiene and handwashing.

 

Sarin provides, “We are inviting people from all walks of life to help us on our mission to prevent illness. The Minecraft campaign is a great example of how we are leveraging the power of technology to educate people about the importance of hygiene online, while also highlighting the importance of waste segregation and its upcycling potential on-ground. By making learning about hygiene fun, interactive and collaborative we hope to instil healthy habits that they will carry with them for the rest of their lives.”

 In beneath 5 days because the recreation went reside, ‘Gift of the Ganga’ has seen participation of avid gamers from 10 international locations.  This contains high avid gamers and influencers who’ve collectively raised consciousness and picked up practically 12 tonnes of plastic waste, equal to round 6 lakh 1.5 litre PET plastic bottles from the Ganga. Lifebuoy urges many extra avid gamers to affix within the assortment, as the upper the quantity of waste collected; the upper the variety of handwash stations the model will be capable of construct to assist 1000’s of kids throughout under-served colleges within the neighborhood/nation.