NGO Promotes hand washing

Conservation Foundation, a non- governmental organization working to promote quality livelihood in rural areas has embarked on a hand washing campaign in the Bawku municipality and its environs.

The campaign was part of activities to mark global hand washing day and educate people especially children on the need to wash their hands before and after meals.

School children carried placards through the principal streets of the municipality that read “hand washing is the best remedy to kill germs”, “Hand washing can reduce infections” and “Wash hands with soap to live long”, among others to create awareness on the need to wash hands with soap.

Miss Agnes Insaidoo, Co-ordinator for the Foundation, noted that United Nation Institute for Children’s Education Fund (UNICEF) records indicates that 4,000 children die from diarrheal diseases every day and one child dies every 30 minutes as a result of poor hand washing habits worldwide.

Miss Insaidoo said scientific research showed that hand washing with soap prevented diseases in an easier way and was more cost-effective than any single vaccine.

She indicated that diarrhoea was a large threat than the collective impact of the Human Immune Virus (HIV), the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), Malaria and Tuberculosis combined.

She said hand washing with soap stops the transmission of disease agents and so could significantly reduce diarrheal infections and Ebola.

The Coordinator called on the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) to sign and implement relevant budgets for hygiene improvement in schools.

Mr Issaku Bukari, Municipal Chief Executive for Bawku, assured the assembly’s commitment to ensure that sanitation was a topmost priority in the Assembly’s budget.

He said the Assembly has already taken steps to provide some logistics including dust bins and public educations on the need to live in a clean environment.

The MCE called on residents in the municipality to protect their environments by keeping their surroundings clean so as to avoid been infected with cholera, and Ebola.