4 minute read

Helping Prevent Mosquito-Borne Disease

A child five or under dies from malaria every minute. Our Base of the Pyramid Group is working to change that.

For more than six decades, SC Johnson has been applying our insect science, philanthropy and product innovation to help families protect themselves from malaria and other insect-borne diseases.

Since 2013, this effort has been formalized as the mission of our Base of the Pyramid (BOP) Group, which is working to deliver a world free from mosquito-borne and hygiene-related diseases around the globe.

Today, their work focuses on four key opportunities. First, backed by 60 years of research in insect science, the team develops innovative, low-cost spatial repellent technologies that assist the most vulnerable communities.

An example is our Mosquito Shield™ which uses natural airflow to passively protect a semi-enclosed or enclosed space. It’s an inexpensive, easy-to-use solution that doesn’t require any electricity or a flame to work and protects multiple people at once.

Our Mosquito Shield™ is hung on a wall to protect multiple people in a space.
Another focus is expanding access to health care and preventions. No matter how innovative and effective our solutions are, they’re only valuable if we can get them to the people who need them most. To achieve this, SC Johnson’s BOP Group builds partnerships with NGOs and national governments to expand access to basic healthcare.

Since 2018, we have worked with the Rwandan Ministry of Health and Society for Family Health Rwanda to establish 68 health posts across the country to address malaria and other public health issues. Given the success of these clinics across Rwanda, we’ve expanded our efforts and established the first health posts in South Sudan and Indonesia.
The health posts we helped establish address malaria and other public health issues including HIV/AIDS, family planning, nutrition and access to clean water.
We also seek to educate those most at risk and understand the barriers and motivators for sustained behavior shifts that lead to mosquito-borne disease prevention.

Working with the Rwandan government and Society for Family Health Rwanda, the BOP Group has reached over a million people with public health interventions and 11 million people with education and behavior change programs. SC Johnson also educates through its brands, such as a program in countries across Latin America, Asia and Africa that shares dengue-prevention information and offers free spraying in mosquito breeding areas.

Finally, we believe partnerships are a vital element of advocating for vulnerable families. It will take cooperation across the spectrum — governments, NGOs and other industry players — to truly end mosquito-borne disease.
Chairman and CEO Fisk Johnson, left, with members of the Great Lakes Malaria Initiative, signing a Memorandum of Understanding to launch the effort.
SC Johnson partners with organizations like the Global Fund, the UN Foundation’s United to Beat Malaria Campaign, the Gates Foundation and the governments of the Great Lakes region to drive real impact. As an example, we joined partners from the East African Community to sign a Memorandum of Understanding supporting the Great Lakes Malaria Initiative and building on efforts to help address mosquito-borne disease. Last year the program reached 60 million people in East Africa as we work toward our shared goal of cutting malaria morbidity in the region by 50% by 2025.

We’re proud of the progress the BOP Group continues to achieve, and there is more to do. We won’t stop until the world is free from mosquito-borne disease.

Helping Rural and Underserved Communities

Over the past decade, the Base of the Pyramid Group’s work has reached over 103 million people with education, support and products, including:

  • 70 SC Johnson health clinics serving over one million people per year
  • 26 countries where our BOP initiatives have made impact
  • 10 products developed specifically for our BOP initiatives
  • Over $50 million funding committed by SC Johnson to BOP-led initiatives