Guinness Handwashing Record

The Guinness World Record™ was broken as part of the Global Handwashing Day celebrations. Through the event, the partners aimed to encourage the practice of hand washing by educating thousands of children about the importance of washing their hands with soap using the proper techniques to enable them stay healthy.

The previous record for the most people washing their hands at the same location was held by Lifebuoy India, the World Health Organisation, and the Government of Tamil Nadu and was set on October 15th, 2009 during an event where 15,115 children washed their hands at Nehru Stadium, Chennai, India to mark 2009 Global Handwashing Day.

Appreciating the achievement during the official handover ceremony, ESA Brand Building Director Margaret Mwaura said the record was a big plus during a year where Unilever invested a lot through the soap to spread the hand washing message in Kenya. She pledged increased investment by Unilever towards similar social programmes in Kenya.

 “Achievement of this record encourages us to work harder towards pushing the hand washing message in Kenya, and work towards making hand washing with soap an everyday habit, so as to reduce diseases and accelerate progress of Millennium Development Goal 4: reduce the mortality rate of children under five by two thirds,” said Ms. Mwaura.

Each year, more than 3.5 million children of our world’s children don’t live to celebrate their fifth birthday because of diarrhea and pneumonia[1]. Hands are the principal carriers of these disease-causing germs: if widely practiced, hand washing with soap could avert one million of those deaths.

The Guinness World Record™ has been part of Lifebuoy’s active promotion of the practice of hand washing with soap using the proper techniques in Kenya since its re-launch in Kenya in June 2010