Lion Corporation (Representative Director, President and Executive Officer: Masayuki Takemori), working with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (President: Akihiko Tanaka, hereinafter “JICA”), signed an agreement on Friday, April 26, 2024 to support hygiene education for elementary school students and teachers as well as parents and the neighboring communities in Bangladesh, where various infectious diseases caused by challenging sanitary conditions have become a serious social issue. Last year, through JICA, Lion provided support for hygiene education for children in Bangladesh*1. The new agreement has been signed in order to expand the scale of our hygiene education support. We will continue to contribute to the development of cleanliness and hygiene habits in Bangladesh by promoting the understanding and spread of proper hygiene knowledge.
*1 March 8, 2023 News Release：Lion Supports the Hygiene Education of Children in Bangladesh through JICA
Agreement Signing Ceremony
Left: Eiji Nishinaga, General Manager, Sustainability Promotion Department, Lion Corporation
Right: Takao Shimokawa, Director, General Economic Development Department
The agreement signing ceremony
■Background
The Group’s corporate activities are guided by its management vision of “Becoming an advanced daily healthcare company,” which is based on the Purpose, “Make a difference in everyday lives by redesigning habits: ReDesign.” To realize this vision, we have formulated the acceleration of growth in the field of “Infection Control”*2 as one of our strategies, and have been working to establish living habits in Japan and overseas to create lifestyles centered on hygiene.
In addition to a hot and humid climate, people in Bangladeshi face many hygiene issues involving such factors as water infrastructure and various infectious disease risks. Therefore, in March 2023, Lion signed an agreement with JICA in support of a project to strengthen the inspection, regulation and coordination functions of the Bangladesh Food Safety Authority. From September to November of the same year, we supported hygiene education for children in Bangladesh through JICA*1 (see below for the results of our activities in 2023).
*2 One of the designated four fields of value creation that indicate the growth drivers for the Lion Group, as defined in the medium-term management plan (https://www.lion.co.jp/en/company/vision/). Evolving from a hand soap manufacturer that supports good hand washing habits, the Company aims to become a hygiene solution provider that addresses all kinds of risk related to infectious diseases.
■Summary
We have signed a new agreement for “The Project for Strengthening the Inspection, Regulatory and Coordinating Function of the Bangladesh Food Safety Authority (BFSA), ”collaborated with JICA.”We will be expanding the scale of the hygiene education support provided to target schools from what we provided last year.
Matters of cooperation
Provision of know-how and educational materials to help elementary school students and teachers, as well as parents and the neighboring communities in Bangladesh, to understand and disseminate proper hygiene knowledge.
Target
About 1,400 elementary schools (approx. 50,000 students) in the suburbs of Dhaka District, etc.
Period of Execution
From Friday, April 26, 2024 to Tuesday, December 31, 2024
■Comments
・JICA
We would like to express our sincere gratitude to Lion Corporation for their recent donation to support hygiene improvement activities in the country of Bangladesh. This donation will be used for hand-washing awareness activities (e.g., picture-story shows related to food safety) for elementary school students in the ongoing Project for Strengthening the Inspection, Regulatory and Coordinating Function of the Bangladesh Food Safety Authority (BFSA). We believe that the promotion of the hygiene and hand washing habits that Lion Corporation has been implementing in various countries will lead to improved food safety and hygiene environment in Bangladesh. Based on Lion Corporation’s corporate philosophy of “Make a difference in everyday lives by redesigning habits” and JICA’s vision of “Leading the world with trust,” we aim to create a society in which people believe in a bright future and pursue diverse possibilities.
・Sustainability Promotion Department, Lion Corporation
Through JICA, the Company will support hygiene education for students, teachers, parents and the neighboring communities in Bangladesh. Activities based on this support will contribute to the establishment of cleanliness and hygiene habits by encouraging the understanding and application of proper hygiene knowledge in daily life. Over the course of the program’s implementation, we will promote its aims by focusing on partnerships with communities while trying to understand the needs of individuals.
◆Results of 2023 Activities
1. Donation of a portion of product sales in Japan
A portion of the sales of the Relax Citrus and Aromatic Herbal-scented KireiKirei Medicated Foaming Hand Soap,*3 released in limited quantities under the KireiKirei brand with the concept of “promoting the spread of hygiene habits that protect your loved ones,” was donated from Japan to Bangladesh through JICA.
*3 February 28, 2023 News Release: “Relaxing Citrus and Aromatic Herbal-scented KireiKirei Medicated Foaming Hand Soap, a collaboration product between the KireiKirei hygiene brand and the apparel brand UNITED ARROWS Green Label Relaxing to be released in limited quantities. [Japanese only]
2. Support for hygiene education
The above donation was used to provide proper knowledge of food hygiene and safety and hand washing methods at all elementary schools in Narayanganj district, Bangladesh.
Health Education Overview
Target: The approximately 24,000 students attending the 539 elementary schools in Bangladesh’s Narayanganj District and Dhaka District
Period: From September 2023 to November 2023
Method: After receiving training on hygiene, teachers from the target elementary schools returned to their schools to conduct hygiene education.This was carried out to raise awareness in all elementary schools in the targeted districts.
Content: Education on proper knowledge of food hygiene and safety and hand washing methods using special card materials and picture-story shows
The learning process using cards as teaching materials. By comparing pictures depicting good and bad examples of several food-related real-life situations, the children learn to decide for themselves what is good and what is bad and to share their opinions with each other.
Using cards, the teacher presents a story of good and bad scenarios illustrated with pictures. The children take turns responding to the teacher’s questions.
Results
When a quiz was administered before and after the instruction, asking when and how to wash hands, the percentage of correct answers for all questions after implementation was over 95%, a significant improvement over the pre-implementation rate.
Classroom Feedback
Teachers commented that the children enjoyed the awareness-raising activities very much. Outside of comments such as “I would like to spread the knowledge I have learned from this activity to not only the children but to some of my colleagues as well,” some of the participating children also commented, “I want to teach what I’ve learned from this activity to my family and friends.”
Together with the Bangladesh people and related organizations, we will continue to contribute to the realization of a world in which everyone can enjoy a clean and hygienic environment and stay healthy with peace of mind.
