Our 7th activity for the school was for the little ones in Grades 1 and 2 on Monday 05th November 2012. It was a program on “Personal Cleanliness & Healthy Habits” presented by Dr. Yoshani Fernando another past Bridgetine who very happily made herself available to talk to the children.

400 little children came in with much excitement and took their seats in the little chairs that were neatly arranged in the Primary school hall. The program commenced with an introduction by Rev. Sr. Alexandra Mendis the Principal of the Primary school and a simple description about the PPA by Dr. Nirmala M. Pieris, President, PPA. Ms. Upekha Wickramaratne member PPA Executive Committee then took over and got the children into full gear with an exercise routine and a video clip the “Good morning song”. An introduction to the Resource person for the day Dr. Yoshani Fernando followed.

Yoshani started her presentation with a short explanation on the importance of keeping the body clean stressing on the importance of proper hand washing (including a hand washing video clip from Unilever). A step by step demo on the hand washing procedure with a little volunteer showing the way was the highlight of the exciting morning. There was much stress on why washing with water only is not enough, and when exactly are the most crucial times to wash your hands?

Other aspects included the proper way of brushing teeth, the importance of healthy eating, drinking water and exercising. The entire presentation was interspersed with many colourful video clips which kept the children engrossed in the subject. At the end of the presentation there was a short question and answer session that drew a huge response with all correct answers receiving small gifts. Upekha who conducted this session was almost thrown overboard by the kiddies who were all so anxious to provide the answers. The program ended with video clip of a dance routine by Dora the explorer on ‘Keeping clean’ which was most enthusiastically followed with great enjoyment by the children with the PPA members who were present joining in.

At the end of the session, each of the little ones received a cake of Lifebuoy soap and a flyer by courtesy of Unilever Sri Lanka Limited. The school benefitted from the many posters on hand washing that was provided to each class room. We thank Upekha who together with Mr. Viranga Wickramaratne, Head of Modern Trade, Unilevers for making all the necessary arrangements for this sponsorship and Ms. Shemila Bandara, Marketing Manager and Ms. Saumya Perera, Senior Brand Manager, Lifebuoy, Unilever Sri Lanka Limited  for the necessary approvals for the sponsorship.  

The very satisfying morning ended with a Vote of Thanks to the Resource person and the PPA from one of the Teachers. 

Resource Person
Dr. Yoshani Fernando
MBBS (Sri Lanka), MSc (Community Medicine)
Additional Medical Officer of Health (AMOH), Marawila
NMP:11102012