Baygon®, an insecticide brand dedicated to improving people’s lives and protecting the futures of children, is the market leader in the Philippines. The country experiencing socio-economical and infrastructural challenges is facing increasing school dropout rates - 26% percent of pupils at the elementary level do not reach sixth grade.

In 2019, as the country declared a national emergency in the face of a Dengue epidemic that had claimed children between ages of 5 and 9 as nearly 50% of its victims, Baygon couldn’t just continue to sell its products. It had to push further to ensure a brighter future for Filipino children, in a concrete & credible way.

Baygon developed Light for Hope: a first of its kind solar-powered lamp with a specially designed liquid electric plug-in that expels repellent from a liquid container to drive mosquitoes away, as it provides light. Come dusk, this lamp provided much-needed light for children to study by in indoor areas ?that don’t have reliable access to electricity, as well as protection from mosquitoes. In collaboration with ChildFund, an NGO that provides assistance to deprived, excluded and vulnerable children in 30 countries, this lamp was distributed to children in high-risk communities.

Unreliable electricity at home affects schoolchildren’s ability to do their homework lending to loss of interest, low attendance and, eventually, them dropping out of school. Many children resort to studying outdoors, which can compromise both their safety and health today and their future performance in schools by exposing them to nighttime danger and mosquito that may carry diseases such as dengue?.

?

Baygon’s strategy: protect these children's present and future by providing them a way to make their homes a safe and a well-lit space where they could do their homework.

The Apayao region, one of the ten lowest socio-economic regions of the Philippines exposed to Dengue carrying mosquitoes, has hundreds of families living in villages, without access to reliable electricity, neither in their homes nor in schools, which adversely affects the children’s hope for a better future.

?

Baygon developed Light for Hope: a first of its kind solar-powered repellent lamp to drive mosquitoes away, in addition to providing light.

?

Created with the needs of the children of Apayao in mind, this lightweight battery-operated lamp is simple to assemble and includes a battery easy for children to carry to their school, where it can be charged via custom installed solar power stations. ?

?

In partnership with ChildFund, we took this life changing product to the families of Upper Atok and Calayucay, two of the most marginalized communities in the region.

By transforming the lives of nearly 120 school children in one community, we have earned the trust and loyalty of a much wider community of families and influencers throughout the region. By making a real and tangible difference to the lives of children in one region of the Philippines, we have cemented the confidence that people show in our brand and products across the country.

?

But what’s even more important is that an initiative that started out as a localized effort targeting specific communities, has set the stage for greater impact as it holds the potential to become an example across wider set of schools & communities in the countries where ChildFund operates.