Procter & Gamble (P&G) and UNICEF have joined hands with Carrefour and Al Jalila Foundation to promote the global effort to eliminate maternal and newborn tetanus. As part of the Pampers-UNICEF initiative, which is now into its tenth year, the four organizations will promote awareness of the disease as well as how consumers can get involved to support the elimination of a disease that kills 49,000 newborn babies every year.
This year’s Pampers-UNICEF campaign in the UAE aims to raise the equivalent of 1.6 million vaccines for UNICEF’s global vaccination drive as well as funds for use by Al Jalila Foundation in support of health-related interventions for children nationally in the UAE. For every promoted pack of Always, Ariel, Fairy, Head & Shoulders, Olay, Oral B, Pampers, Pantene and Tide products P&G will donate the cost of one life-saving vaccine to UNICEF. The latest round of the Pampers-UNICEF campaign in the Gulf will run in the UAE from the 6th to the 16th September.
“This cause has saved the lives of countless mothers and children across Africa and Asia and we have supported Pampers-UNICEF globally,” said Franck Boissinot, VP for Marketing at Majid Al Futtaim Retail, who operate the Carrefour brand in the region. “We wanted to give our consumers the opportunity to support the campaign and we will be promoting Pampers-UNICEF across the UAE.”
UNICEF Gulf Area Representative Dr. Ibrahim El Ziq said: “We are grateful to our partners at P&G for their support and contribution to the work of UNICEF, and for promoting awareness of MNT through the Pampers-UNICEF campaign with Carrefour here in the region. We are also very excited to team up with Al Jalila Foundation in support of this global campaign here in the UAE for the first time this year. This is the third consecutive year to run this campaign in the UAE, and the results have contributed greatly to the global fight against the devastating disease.”
Since 2006, Pampers’ funding has helped eliminate neonatal tetanus in 15 countries by donating more than 300 million vaccines to women and their children in countries including Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Myanmar, Senegal, Tanzania, Timor Leste and Uganda.
“As a global philanthropic organisation dedicated to transforming lives through medical education and research, we are pleased to be partnering with the Pampers-UNICEF initiative,” explained Dr Abdulkareem Al Olama, CEO of Al Jalila Foundation. “Part of our mission is to support ground-breaking research that addresses health challenges prevalent in the region, and the work being done by Pampers and UNICEF in terms of the partnership between the public and private sector to combat and beat a disease that is prevalent in the emerging world is pioneering.”
“The Pampers-UNICEF campaign has gone from strength to strength in the UAE, thanks to the support shown by Carrefour’s consumers,” added Samar Hayat, Pampers Brand Director for India, Middle East and Africa, Procter & Gamble. “With the support of Al Jalila Foundation we are aiming to donate more vaccines than ever from our UAE operations and play our part in the drive to eliminate MNT worldwide.”