Queenmothers take cleanliness campaign to Agbogbloshie
The Queenmothers Foundation of Ghana (QMFG) yesterday took its national sanitation campaign to the Agbogbloshie Market in Accra, where the members interacted with the traders on the need to maintain environmental cleanliness.
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Members of the foundation engaged the traders in one-on-one discussions, instead of addressing them together from a dais.
The Agbogbloshie Market is one of the biggest markets in the Greater Accra Region and though it serves as the source of fresh food supply to the smaller markets, the place is engulfed in filth.
The Agbogbloshie outreach programme formed part of the sanitation campaign dubbed “I pledge campaign.” The national campaign aims at making the public accept responsibility for both good personal and environmental sanitation.
Yesterday’s exercise was supported by the Royal Bank with GH¢10,000.
Sanitation campaign
Briefing the Daily Graphic, the Executive Secretary of the foundation, Naa Ahima Nunoo, said the foundation had been carrying out education on sanitation since October last year and was at the Agbogbloshie Market because it was one of the biggest markets in Accra.
“After Agbogbloshie, our next target is Sodom and Gomorrah, which is also the biggest slum in Accra,” she said.
Naa Ahima added that of the foundation’s objective was to make the market queens peer educators to enable them to champion good sanitary practices in the markets, in order to curb the outbreak of cholera and other sanitation-related diseases.
She also said some food vendors in the markets did not practise good hygiene, hence the need to educate them on personal and environmental hygiene.
Agbogbloshie Market stench
The National President of QMFG, Nana Serwaa Bonsu, expressed worry about the stench that had engulfed the market and stressed the need for it to be cleaned properly periodically to eradicate it and also prevent the outbreak of diseases such as cholera.
She said the government alone could not do that work so there was the need for every individual who operated at Agbogbloshie to participate in the cleaning of the market and its environs.