Guardian Malaysia announced yesterday a new nationwide community service programme, “Together, Keeping Kids Clean and Healthy” aimed at helping children from low income families stay clean and, consequently, healthy.
As part of its #guardiancares initiative, the programme which will start on 15 December 2022, will provide children from low income families with hygiene products, in particular, body wash.
Anna Ng, Brand Marketing Director, Southeast Asia, Guardian, said:
“At Guardian, we believe that everyone deserves to feel clean and healthy. It is a basic human right. It should not be a luxury or privilege, especially for children. Children from low income families are especially vulnerable because these families do not have the resources, especially post Covid-19, to be able to buy hygiene products when their priority is to buy food to feed their children. The rising cost of living further exacerbates these difficulties when you factor in other major expenditures such as transportation, education, rent, and mortgages.
“Yet keeping children clean and healthy remains vital when, for example, we saw cases of hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) this year rise 20-fold compared to last year with children the most affected. And with our recent experiences with Covid-19, keeping good hygiene especially good hand hygiene remains a very important tool in preventing the spread of infectious diseases such as Covid-19.”
“Apart from that, we also truly believe that when a child is clean and smells nice, it boosts his self-esteem and improves his mental well-being too.” added Ng.
To mark the launch of this campaign in Malaysia today, 200 school children from Primary One classes of Sekolah Kebangsaan Bandar Sri Damansara 1, received 2 bottles of one litre body wash and 100ml bottles of body wash and a Guardiancares Bear each, In addition 800 Primary Two to Six children received one bottle of 1Liter body wash. The school children will also get a #guardiancares eco-bag with hygiene posters detailing the correct way to wash their hands and body during bath time.
The Guardiancares Bear will be on sale at Ringgit Malaysia Thirty only, at all Guardian stores throughout Malaysia and through Guardian’s online store and the Guardian mobile app. All proceeds from the sale of Guardiancares Bears will go to the #guardiancares fund to support the bath care needs of underprivileged children in Malaysia.
At the launch, Guardian team members also pitched in to help finish a mural inspired by Haris Rashid at the school depicting the importance of keeping healthy and clean.
Ng added: “Through this programme, we are targeting to provide 20 million baths to underprivileged children not only in Malaysia but in other South East Asian countries, namely, Singapore, Indonesia, Cambodia and Vietnam.
“This initiative is a region-wide Guardian community service programme covering five countries with each country working with a local Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) so that our contributions will reach the intended children. In Malaysia, Guardian will work with Yayasan Perintis Malaysia who will help distribute these bath care products and identify the child recipients on behalf of Guardian. We will be focussing on children aged of 12 years and below from B40 families who live in low-cost flats and low-cost houses near the schools.
“Additionally, for every one litre of Guardian bath care product sold in Malaysia, 15 sen will be donated to buying bath care products for these underprivileged children. So we hope our customers will support our community service effort by buying Guardian bath care products,” Ng said.
The #guardiancares initiative is a sustainability initiative focused on caring for the health of its customers and the community that Guardian operates in.
“We would like to inspire and empower customers to make healthy and sustainable choices when it comes to choosing the health and beauty brands they trust at Guardian. At the end of the day, we want our customers to ‘care’ about what they buy. We believe that beauty begins from the inside. By choosing to care, together we can make a difference,” Ng concluded.
