Schools in Western Region receive hand washing facilities

Thirty-one schools in the six coastal districts of the Western Region, have received hand washing facilities from Tullow and TEN Partners.

Some of the beneficiary schools are Poasi Methodist Primary and Junior High School (JHS), Nana Baidoo Bonsu M/A JHS and Rhyner Paul Anglican JHS at Ngyerisia.

They took delivery of 130 buckets to facilitate proper hand washing.

Mr Edmund Fiifi Enchill, Social Investment Supervisor for TEN Partners, who presented the items at a ceremony in New Takoradi, said the donation formed part of the TEN Partners’ social investment initiative.

He said the facilities would support the work of the Ghana Education Service in promoting proper hand washing with soap and basic hygiene and sanitation practices under the School Health Education Programme.

Mr Enchill noted that UNICEF statistics revealed that globally, diarrheoa remains the second highest cause of under-five mortality with 600,000 children dying each year out of 1.7 billion cases.

Despite the life threatening consequences of diarrheoal diseases and respiratory infections, research has shown that the simple practice of hand washing with soap under clean running water is the most effective and efficient way to prevent diseases, he said.

He said: “It has been proven that simple hand washing with soap can reduce diarrheoal infection by about 47 per cent and respiratory infection by nearly 25 per cent while clean water and effective hand washing may reduce the risk of stunted growth in children under-five years up to 15 per cent.”

Mr Enchill called for collective efforts from stakeholders to improve upon Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) in schools and communities in order to reach out to the vulnerable children and families so that the pupils could achieve their full potentials.

Madam Enyonam Afi Amafuga, the Regional Director of Education, received the items on behalf of the beneficiary schools, and expressed gratitude to the TEN partners.

Mr George Dorgbetor, the Project Manager of the WASH-in Schools project, said it had targeted to reach out to 7,000 children to wash their hands during the Global Hand Washing Day in October 15.

However, the project had targeted 10,000 children in the first year of implementation.

Mr Dorgbetor encouraged teachers, parents and other stakeholders to support the cause of helping more children to acquire the habit of basic hygiene with proper hand washing with soap under running water.

He said the implementing organisation have held series of community engagements with beneficiary communities so that the people could imbibe sustainable behavioural change, and also avoid open defecation and indiscriminate littering on the environment.

The WASH project is being implemented by the Opportunities Industrialisation Centres International, a non-governmental organisation, and would be implemented within a period of one year with a yearly roll-out for five years.

The project is funded by Tullow Ghana Limited and TEN partners including Kosmos Energy, Ghana National Petroleum Corporation, Anadarko and Petro South Africa.