MANILA, PHILIPPINES— The Department of Health’s trusted partners Procter & Gamble (P&G) Philippines, leading consumer goods manufacturer of health and hygiene products, and NCCC Supermarket, a homegrown retail company in Mindanao, has teamed up to make the BIDA Solusyon sa COVID-19 campaign bigger in Davao as it continues to activate its regional on-ground initiatives. DOH has first launched its nationwide education and promotions campaign in July to enable and empower Filipinos to have healthier and safer homes.
BIDA, which stands for Bawal Walang Mask, Isanitize ang Kamay at Bahay, Dumistansya, and Alamin ang Totoo, is an easy to remember acronym of healthy practices each Filipino can do to be part of the solution to fighting COVID-19. On top of these mandatory preventive protocols, the BIDA Campaign with P&G promotes expert-recommended everyday home sanitation such as handwashing with soap for 20 seconds, bathing after coming home, laundering clothes worn outside, and cleaning the kitchen areas and meal utensils.
Prevention is one of the country’s National Action Plan to defeat COVID-19. Aside from being cheap, easy and effective, it is also the most crucial and most important among the strategies. “We are helping our health sector and its system recuperate from a hard-fought battle. We are building back our country stronger and more resilient, simply by exercising minimum health precautions hence protecting ourselves from getting sick,” said Dr. Abdullah Dumama, Jr., DOH Undersecretary of Health, Field Implementation Cluster Team for Visayas and Mindanao, in an online partnership launch forum. He also thanked all the responders and the partners such as P&G Philippines and NCCC Supermarket for advocating for the BIDA Solusyon campaign.
P&G is using its trusted health and hygiene brands, expertise in media, marketing and sales, and its network and reach to be a Force for Good. It has sponsored the production and airing of the “BIDA sa Bahay” mass education song and video to educate Filipinos about the home sanitation practices. The catchy song drove recall and positive engagement with more than five million Filipinos in digital within just the first week from release. DOH also plans to turn-over the P&G BIDA sa Bahay Song and Video to the Department of Education to help schools integrate on blended learning activities.
“As the government continues to maximize our limited resources, we are grateful that P&G found a way to use its trusted hygiene brands to amplify the DOH’s campaign. With their technical and marketing expertise, they have assisted us with the various mass education videos and the BIDA sa BAHAY song to help us spread the B.I.D.A. practices as well as the right home hygiene practices. We were also able to respond positively to the needs of 70,000 low income households who have been badly hit by the pandemic, and for whom the P&G BIDA home hygiene kits have been most useful. Today, the partnership with P&G is now the gold standard for all our private partners,” said Dr. Beverly Lorraine Ho, DOH Health Promotions Bureau Director.
P&G also donated to the DOH and USAID 70,000 BIDA home kits for Filipino families in 36 provinces across the country to help them practice the prescribed behaviors for COVID-19 prevention. Each kit contains a two-week supply of P&G products such as Safeguard bath soap, Head and Shoulders shampoo, Joy dishwashing liquid, and Ariel laundry detergent.
“P&G Philippines is very honored to be in partnership with two of our long-time partners from the government and from the private sector. We have always committed to promoting health and hygiene in the country to be a force for good and we have been in partner with DOH since the 1990s. We are also equally grateful to NCCC Supermarket for helping us carry out our primary mission of serving our consumers with essential health, hygiene and sanitation products, which are critically needed by Filipinos as we all fight the transmission of the virus,” said Kristine Tang, P&G Marketing Vice President for Fabric and Home Care.
Meanwhile, NCCC has supported the DOH by producing its on-ground BIDA promotional collaterals to help local government units disseminate the COVID-19 prevention messages. NCCC was able to provide more than 3.3 million pesos worth of BIDA tarpaulins and standees in Tagalog and Bisaya versions for the communities in Davao and Palawan. This has been particularly helpful for DOH as they aim to intensify their efforts to bring the communication messages closer to the local communities through below-the-line executions.
With this BIDA sa Mindanao partnership, P&G and NCCC will be able to educate and empower more local Davao citizens to participate and support the DOH’s campaign. NCCC will use its grocery stores and allocate spaces for Hygiene Solution Centers which will promote the BIDA messages and will enable citizens with a faster way to shop their P&G hygiene product needs in one place, preventing long waiting lines and enabling physical distancing.
Through NCCC Cares Inc., the non-stock, non-profit organization of NCCC that advocates for different programs for family and community social development, the partnership will also help over 500 families in nearby high risk NCCC communities in Davao and Tagum with P&G donation of hygiene kits. The hygiene kits are 2-weeks worth of supply and are essential to enable more people to protect themselves from the virus. NCCC has always been committed in caring for the welfare and development of the communities surrounding its communities across Tagum, Davao and even in Palawan.
“As we face the New Normal, we wish to extend help to some of the affected communities in Mindanao at the same time, provide support to our local government in strengthening the BIDA Solusyon sa COVID-19 campaign through partnering with DOH and to the leading consumer goods company, Procter & Gamble Philippines,” said Mr. Lafayette Lim, NCCC Supermarket Chief Operating Officer.
