Unilever Supports Ornge and Nishnawbe Aski Nation communities to help keep Ontario's Northern fly-in communities safe from COVID-19

The Lifebuoy brand will donate hygiene supplies to help protect Ontario's Northern Indigenous communities from COVID-19.

TORONTO, March 25, 2021 /CNW/ - Unilever is pleased to announce that Lifebuoy, the world's number one selling hygiene soap brand*, will be supporting Ornge and Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN) with the donation of much-needed hygiene products. As the world's leading hygiene soap brand*, Lifebuoy aims to make a difference by creating accessible hygiene products and promoting healthy hygiene habits.

More than 200,000 units of Lifebuoy sanitizer gel, antibacterial wipes and hand wash will be distributed to assist Ornge crews in providing critical care to Ontario's patients and to help keep NAN communities safe from COVID-19. NAN will be coordinating with schools in their region to ensure timely delivery for all NAN students in need.

"This contribution will help ensure that the vaccine rollout in NAN territory is a success," says NAN Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler. "We thank Unilever for this generous donation to our communities."

Proper hand hygiene and regular surface cleaning is a crucial step in helping prevent the spread of COVID-19 and other infectious diseases. Lifebuoy's long-standing commitment to helping improve the handwashing habits of communities all over the world has reached more than one billion people.

"Hygiene products are vital tools for our crews, vaccination teams and communities to protect themselves from COVID-19," says Dr. Homer Tien, President and CEO of Ornge. "Ornge would like to thank Unilever for their generosity and Indigenous Sport & Wellness Ontario for assisting with the storage and transportation needs for this program."

Last month, Ornge vaccination teams began their efforts to deliver and administer COVID-19 vaccines to 31 remote, fly-in Indigenous communities in Northern Ontario as part of Operation Remote Immunity. These communities are not accessible by road and this operation is critical to keeping them safe as they do not have the healthcare infrastructure in place to support a large outbreak. As of March 7, 2021, more than 16,000 vaccinations have been administered.

"Lifebuoy is committed to providing products that will help to reduce the spread of germs and bacteria and we are proud to support Ornge's important Operation Remote Immunity project," said Ratika Sehgal, Marketing Manager Unilever International, Canada. "We are dedicated to the communities we serve and want to do our part by helping people, no matter their postal code, do everything they can to help keep themselves and their communities safe throughout COVID-19."

Ornge and NAN received all of the products in March, 2021.

*Calculation based on Nielsen volume sales information for the total markets (40 countries), latest 12 months. Details available upon request.

About Unilever North America
Unilever is one of the world's leading suppliers of Beauty & Personal Care, Home Care, and Foods & Refreshment products, with sales in over 190 countries and products used by 2.5 billion people every day. We have 149,000 employees and generated sales of €50.7 billion in 2020. Over half of our footprint is in developing and emerging markets. We have around 400 brands found in homes all over the world. In Canada, the portfolio includes brand icons such as: Axe, Ben & Jerry's, Breyers, Degree, Dove personal care products, Hellmann's, Klondike, Knorr, Lifebuoy, Lipton, Love Beauty and Planet, Magnum, Nexxus, OLLY, Popsicle, Pukka, Q-Tips, Schmidt's, Seventh Generation, SheaMoisture, Simple, Sir Kensington's, St. Ives, TRESemmé, Vaseline and Vim. All of the preceding brand names are owned or used under license by Unilever Canada Inc.

Our vision is to be the global leader in sustainable business and to demonstrate how our purpose-led, future-fit business model drives superior performance. We have a long tradition of being a progressive, responsible business. It goes back to the days of our founder William Lever, who launched the world's first purposeful brand, Sunlight Soap, more than 100 years ago, and it's at the heart of how we run our company today.

The Unilever Compass, our sustainable business strategy, is set out to help us deliver superior performance and drive sustainable and responsible growth, while:

• improving the health of the planet;
• improving people's health, confidence and wellbeing; and
• contributing to a fairer and more socially inclusive world.

While there is still more to do, we are proud to have been recognized in 2020 as a sector leader in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index and – for the tenth-consecutive year – as the top ranked company in the 2020 GlobeScan/SustainAbility Sustainability Leaders survey.

For more information on Unilever Canada and its brands visit: www.unilever.ca.

SOURCE Unilever North America

Joshua McNamara, Ornge Media Relations, [email protected], 416-531-7577 (local), 1-888-229-8115 (toll free); Julia Jolly, Weber Shandwick, [email protected], 416-937-9714