We have often heard how important it is to give back to community and today we are going to talk about one such example. A Sri Lankan national newspaper decided that it could do more than just write about dengue virus that is turning into a catastrophe in Sri Lanka. The result was that the newspaper used citronella essence in its ink to protect the readers from mosquito bites.
The Newspaper, Mawbima, participated in the country’s National Dengue Week with great enthusiasm and at first made use of large poster ads that were coated with citronella essences. These ads were then placed throughout the country at bus stops to save people from getting bitten by mosquitoes while waiting for their bus. For those of you who are wondering; citronella essence is a natural mosquito repellant.
During this week, the newspaper also published a number of articles that came with a sense of duty and practicability towards fighting dengue. The last day of the week was observed by coming up with this special type of newspaper that is capable of repelling mosquitoes and hence, lower the risk of dengue.
Apparently, these efforts didn’t go to waste as the special newspaper was sold 30% more than normal days and the overall readership saw an increase of 300,000. According to WHO, about 2.5 billion people are at a risk from dengue and the disease is even emerging in US although it was dealt with about 50 years ago!
