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Ghana: Hand Washing Organised to Mark World Water Day
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Public Agenda (Accra)
28 March 2008
Posted to the web 28 March 2008
Justin Bayor
Christian Children's Fund of Canada in collaboration with its partner organisation, Tuma Kavi has organised a hand washing workshop for over 100 members of its Child to Child Health and Environmental clubs drawn from three communities in the Savelugu Nanton district in order to mark World Water Day.
The day which was marked under the theme "Sanitation Matters" was used to highlight the importance of keeping our environment clean. World water day is a day set aside to bring global and local attention to issues of water stress,water-related disasters and poor water quality. Lack of safe water and adequate sanitation is the world's single largest cause of illness. World Water Day is a therefore a unique opporturnity to draw attention to the crisis and to create momentum that compels goverments, the international community, civil society and individuals to take action.
Over 2.6 billion people, including 980 million children, live without proper sanitation and every 20 seconds on average, a child dies as a direct result. Poor basic hygeeine practices, especially among children, are a major contributing factor to these deaths. Diarrhieal diseases, a direct result of poor sanitation and hygiene, kill over 1 million children every year. Simple, proper hand-washing with water and soap or ash can reduce the incidence of the disease by up to 50 percent.
The children were taught lessons on proper hand washing techniques, lessons on the use of new hand washing stations before eating and lessons on how to build low cost hand washing stations. The aim was to let them act as catalyst for initiating student-led suatainable hand washing programs in schools and reduce in the incidence of diarrhoea.
Speaking to the particiapants of the workshop, the Leader of the District Health and Sanitation Team of Savelugu-Nanton district, S.I Tahiru, reminded the children to keep their environment clean and to always wash their hands regularly.
The Team Leader said it was not only important for them to wash their hands regularly but also wash their hands with soap, most especially after visiting the toilet. He said if they washed their hands properly with soap, they would reduce the diseases that affected them by 30 percent.
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The Country Director of Christian Children's Fund of Canada (CCFC), Sanatu Nantogma said that children are the top priority of CCFC and so the organisation shall consistently advocate for the right of children through providing their needs, protecting them against abuse of any form and making them participate in decisions and actions that affect them.
She stated that "encouraging children to wash hands as it is being done today is a step towards reducing dysentery, diarrhoea and trachoma, which are water borne and water related diseases". The Country Director added that choosing a day as today to hold this workshop for the Child To Child (CTC) groups is a very good way of commemorating World Water Day, especially focusing on children as a way of propagating the message on sanitation and hand washing.
At the end of the workshop, CTC groups were given practical lessons on how to wash their hands properly with soap.
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