A scene from the exercise
A UNILEVER toothpaste brand, Pepsodent, has organised a special health walk as part of efforts to create awareness for this year’s World Oral Health Day celebration.
The health walk was held last Saturday at Ayi Mensah, an outskirt of Accra, through the Aburi Hills and ending around the Peduase Presidential Lodge.
The health walk was mainly embarked upon by staff and management of Unilever Ghana Limited, who wore Pepsodent branded T-shirts with inscriptions that sought to highlight the importance of oral health.
World Oral Health Day is celebrated annually on 20 March, and it seeks to draw the attention of global citizens to the benefits of a healthy mouth and to promote worldwide awareness of the issues around oral health.
This year’s global celebration is under the theme: ‘Say Ahh’. The theme is a three-year campaign launched in 2018, starting with ‘Think Mouth, Think Health’ as the first sub-theme.
DAILY GUIDE understands that the theme seeks to empower everyone to keep a healthy mouth and to help people maintain their general health and well-being.
The theme focuses on four main messages — oral health and general health have a two-way relationship; the mouth cannot be isolated from the rest of the body; most oral diseases share common risk factors with other diseases; oral health is much more than a nice smile.
Addressing journalists on the sidelines of the walk, Managing Director of Unilever Ghana Limited, Ziobeieton Yeo, stated that people must be encouraged to brush twice daily.
He disclosed that 60 percent of children do not go to school because of toothache or tooth decay “and we know education is one of those things that any nation needs to prioritise.”
“So for us, a way of contributing to a better Ghana is to make sure that people don’t drop out of school because of toothache or tooth decay,” he said.
“We celebrate this day at the efforts of individuals, be it people in Unilever or outside, the efforts of actually educating the people. I am really, really glad to know that over the past few years, we have educated four million children on the benefit of brushing day and night,” he added.
Unilever is expected to reach out to one million kids across Ghana this year with oral health education.
Tooth decay affects about 100 percent of adults, Head of Communications & Sustainability at Unilever, Henry Malm, said.
BY Melvin Tarlue