Global Handwashing Day 2025: WBFA & Reckitt Drive Hygiene Education Nationwide

Lagos, Nigeria — The Wellbeing Foundation Africa (WBFA), in partnership with Reckitt, commemorates Global Handwashing Day 2025 with simultaneous frontline activities in Lagos, Kwara, and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), reaffirming their joint commitment to advancing hygiene education and strengthening health in schools, health care facilities and communities across Nigeria.

This year’s theme, “Clean Hands Are Within Reach,” reinforces the global call for equitable access to hygiene education, while celebrating the measurable results achieved through the Dettol Hygiene Quest (DHQ) — WBFA and Reckitt’s flagship hygiene-behaviour-change programme. The partnership forms part of Reckitt’s flagship Clean Naija campaign — a nationwide movement driving behaviour change and public engagement for a cleaner, healthier Nigeria through practical demonstrations and life-saving messages on hand hygiene and Infection Prevention and Control.

Since its inception, the WBFA DHQ program target of reach over 6 million Nigerians by 2030 — including 4.1 million school children, 1.5 million caregivers and households, has reached more than 442,381 health workers, teachers at 716 schools, and community influencers in 456 communities with interactive hand and surface hygiene and waste management lessons, practical demonstrations, and life-saving personal social health and economic education messages on infection prevention and control (IPC).

These achievements advance Nigeria’s WASHNorm targets and align with Reckitt’s Clean Naija Commitment, which continues to support nationwide efforts to strengthen handwashing culture in homes, schools, health facilities, and public spaces.

“Through the Dettol Hygiene Quest, the Wellbeing Foundation Africa and Reckitt have transformed hygiene knowledge into lasting community action. Clean hands are not just a habit; they are a health right and a shared responsibility. As we mark Global Handwashing Day 2025, we celebrate every child, mother, teacher, and health worker who has become a hygiene hero in their community.”

— Dr. Osinachi Onyeoziri, Director of Programmes, Wellbeing Foundation Africa

Across WBFA-led activations, participants engaged in handwashing demonstrations, school hygiene competitions, community WASH pledges, and distribution of hygiene kits — practical steps reinforcing lifelong hygiene behaviour.

The Foundation’s broader WASH and health education interventions — including MamaCare360, NICU Plus, and Project Oscar — integrate hygiene promotion within maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health (RMNCAH+N) services, ensuring a continuum of care and prevention.

Looking ahead, WBFA and Reckitt are working toward a national acceleration and scale-up phase of the DHQ programme to extend its reach to new mothers, youth, and health facilities nationwide, further deepening impact and sustainability.