Red Cross volunteers equipped with data collection skills

Thirty volunteers and staff of the Ghana Red Cross Society have undergone training on using the mobile phone to collect data.

The skills acquired are to help the participants undertake a community survey in the Eastern and Ashanti Regions.

Mr Gerhard Tauscher of the Water and Sanitation Office of the International Federation of Red Cross said the purpose of the survey is to enable the Red Cross to know the water and sanitation problems of the communities as well as the prevailing health and nutritional challenges.

He said the Ghana Red Cross in partnership with Nestle is to launch a health and sanitation project in some parts of the two stated regions.

Mr Zakari Issa, Water and Sanitation Coordinator for West and Central Africa for International Federation of Red Cross, said the workshop also forms part of a capacity building measure for the staff and volunteers.

He said the survey would form the basis of intervention programs hence the need to have a good quality data to enable good planning to address issues that would be identified.

The participants were trained on the use of mobile phones to collect data and how to interpret the data.