Zongo Ministry, Iran Clinic educate ‘Islamic pupils’ on personal hygiene

Scores of pupils of the Umra Bun Hatab Islamic Basic School in the La-Nkwantang Municipal Assembly of the Greater Accra Region have been taken through skin care screening and education to boost personal hygiene habits among school going children in the area.

The outreach exercise was jointly organized by the Ministry of Inner–City and Zongo Development (MICZD) and Iran Clinic with support from the Red Crescent, an international Non–Governmental Organization.

The outreach programme was to assist the pupils to correct some of the misconception harboured by the pupils about skin diseases among Basic and Junior High students in the Zongo communities.

The pupils were taken through the ten ways to protect the skin by the medical team led by Dr. Richmond Larweh and Sheik Umar Kamil, the Administrator of Iran Clinic.

The screening exercise further educated the children on keeping their clothes clean and not sharing it with their siblings, to avoid the use of too strong soaps, to report any changes in a spot or birthmark, avoid bleaching and wearing protective clothes as well as the symptoms of scabies disease.

Speaking at the launch of the Health Outreach Programme in Madina, a suburb in Accra, Alhaji Abubakar Saddique Boniface; the Minister of Inner-City and Zongo Development explained that the programme was in collaboration with the management of Iran Clinic to carry out an outreach health screening in some twenty(20) schools in the Greater Accra Region.

He noted that the success of the outreach programme in the Greater Accra Region will inform the Ministry’s decision to reciprocate the exercise across the country.

The Minister was joined by the Municipal Chief Executive Officer (MCE) of the La-Nkwantang Municipal Assembly; Jennifer Dede Afabedzi, the Constituency Organizer of governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) and Municipal National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO) coordinator, Forster Arthur and officials from the Ministry of Inner-City and Zongo Development.

The Minister said the programme will be carried out in three areas of the constituency before moving to the Ayawaso sub-metro.

He said the Ministry took the decision to partner with the management of the Iran clinic to roll out the exercise to offer a healthy life to ensure sound mind for learning among pupils.

He added that this is to also to correct the myths that skin diseases are incurable as most children living the Zongo and inner-city areas are vulnerable to some of the diseases mentioned earlier by the medical team.

He appealed to the teachers and pupils to cooperate with the medical team for a successful programme.

The MCE of the area on her part pledged the Assembly’s support for the programme adding that this forms part of president Nana Addo’s vision to ensure healthy life and better for the people living in the Zongo areas of the country.

The Iran clinic’s Administrator, Sheik Umar Kamal also revealed that the clinic is further collaborating with Red Cross Society of Ghana to train over ten thousand volunteers in first aid management across the country.

According to him, most of the deaths that occur at the various hospitals across the country are avoidable but because of lack of proper first aid practices in the hospitals and clinics lives are lost needlessly across the country.

Alhaji Imoro Sulemana, the Head Teacher of Umra Bun Hatab Islamic Basic School took the opportunity to thank the Minister and his team as well as the management of the Iran clinic for the gesture done the school.

He prevailed on the medical team to include eye screening to the screening exercise as many of the children suffer traits of the eye diseases.