{"id":1201,"date":"2013-10-14T09:10:53","date_gmt":"2013-10-14T09:10:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mydoorsign.com\/blog\/?p=1201"},"modified":"2024-06-11T11:02:54","modified_gmt":"2024-06-11T11:02:54","slug":"bollywood-celeb-hand-washing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mydoorsign.com/blog\/bollywood-celeb-hand-washing\/","title":{"rendered":"Bollywood celeb advocates hand washing at the United Nations General Assembly"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sanitation meets stardom. The 68th<\/sup> United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) witnessed Bollywood celeb, Kajol Devgn campaigning for hand washing to reduce child mortality. Kajol advocated the cause at the Social Good Summit held at the UN Week in New York from September 23 to 25.<\/p>\n

\"Kajol

Kajol (second from left) with Unilever CEO Paul Polman (left) and other dignitaries. Image courtesy: Unilever Twitter feed<\/a>.<\/p><\/div>\n

Speaking at the Social Good Summit, along with other notable speakers like Al Gore and Melinda Gates, Kajol remarked that over 90 percent of the 2 million deaths occurring in children under the age of five, take place in Africa and Asia. To demonstrate the magnitude of the problem, she added<\/a>, \u201cImagine 40 Boeing 747s crashing every single day.\u201d The actress appealed to the policymakers and government to push hand washing programs to achieve one of the eight Millennium Development Goals<\/a> \u2014 reduction in child mortality.<\/p>\n

The UNGA brought together world leaders, key opinion makers, and policy makers and laid focus on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a set of benchmarks they hope to achieve by 2015.<\/p>\n

Hand washing helps children make it to adulthood<\/h3>\n

Two million children die before they reach the age of five due to diseases like diarrhea and pneumonia \u2014 a result of poor hand hygiene among other factors. Clinical research shows that hand washing with soap on key occasions, such as after using the restroom and handling animals<\/a>, and before eating can cut the risk of diarrhea by up to 45 percent.<\/p>\n

Kajol is a part of Lifebouy\u2019s ‘Help a Child Reach 5’ campaign in India, which promotes hand washing with soap, one village at a time. The campaign kick-started in Madhya Pradesh in central India in a village called Thesgora, which has the highest incidences of diarrhea among children, globally.<\/p>\n

Under the hand washing operation, children and their families are provided with hand hygiene education to prevent life-threatening diseases due to contaminated hands.<\/p>\n