Sanofi and Save the Children SA partner to help eradicate diarrhoea

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) estimates that around 480 000 children under the age of five died from diarrhoea related illness in 2019.

Locally, at Inanda north of Durban, the disease caused around 12% of deaths among children under five between 2012 and 2017.

In an effort to address this concern, pharmaceutical company Sanofi and non-profit organisation, Save the Children South Africa have partnered to provide hygiene education and access to safe drinking water to the area.

Sanofi’s Momeena Omarjee says about two million people will benefit from this campaign.

“We all know that there are many underprivileged communities in SA, where they don’t have access to clean drinkable water and they also don’t have access to quality childhood development programs. Over and above that, there is limited access to health, nutrition services and that comes with an increased risk to diarrhoea in these communities. So, if you look for a stat, there is a higher risk for these communities up to ten-fold.”

 Omarjee spoke Lotus FM’s Newsbreak: