CofA expresses concern about lack of sanitation

The College for Ama (CofA), a local NGO, has expressed concern about the lack of access to potable water and sanitation services in schools.

“We have first-hand experience of many of Ghana's rural schools that are without toilet facilities or access to water.

These were contained in a statement by COfA on the occasion of the 20th Anniversary of the Convention of the Rights of the Child, and copied to the Ghana News Agency in Accra

“We appreciate government’s initiative to provide school girls with free sanitary pads. However, without proper and clean toilets, many girls will still be absent when they have their period,” Professor Nana Araba Apt, CoFA Honorary Chief Executive Officer, said in the statement.

“We are of the opinion, as indeed the UN does, that water and sanitation services in schools can ensure that children, especially girls, stay in school and learn life-long hygiene habits.”

The statement said the time has come for government to turn commitments to developing rural areas into action, so that all school children across the country will have access to clean water, and live in hygienic environments.

The Convention recognizes “the right of the child to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health,” and “the right of every child to a standard of living adequate for the child's physical, mental, spiritual, moral and social development.”

Global efforts to provide improved water and sanitation for all, are gaining momentum, but serious gaps in funding, continue to hamper progress, according to a new report from the World Health Organization on behalf of UN-Water.

CoFA is a child-centred non-governmental organization that seeks to promote the rights of children, especially the girl-child.

It aims to change the attitudes of intelligent and gifted young girls so they understand the advantages of a better education; getting married later; acquiring more wealth and prosperity, and thus having fewer children who they can look after better, including supporting them through secondary and higher education.