Unilever presents WASH Stations to two schools
The Unilever Foundation has commissioned two wash station facilities at the cost of GH¢56,000 for two schools in the Tema metropolis.
Advertisement
The facilities, which comprise four washrooms and four hand washing units each, and have been provided under the Unilever Ghana environmental sustainability programme, is aimed at improving insanitary conditions in schools.
According to the Chairman of the Unilever Foundation, Mr Andrews Evans Quayson, diarrhoea related deaths, especially involving children, were on the increase due to the lack of access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation facilities.
“Today, insanitary conditions persist in schools because whereas most government basic schools lack sanitation facilities, the deplorable ones that exist in some schools are being shared by both pupils and the communities within which these schools are sited”, Mr Quayson stated.
He was of the view that diarrhoea related deaths among children could be prevented through the provision of safe drinking water, basic sanitation and good hygienic practices.
“Encouraging hygienic practices among children could save more lives than any single vaccine or medical intervention, which could go to cut diarrhoea related deaths”, Mr Quayson stressed.
Global Hand Washing Day
Mr Quayson was worried that emphasis was often on the promotion of hygienic conditions and environmental sustainability only when the global hand washing day was marked annually.
“We need to work together to ensure hand washing with soap and other hygienic practices becomes part of the daily routine of children,” he urged.
Other Trending Stories
“Children should act as change agents, taking good practices of hygiene learned at school to their homes and communities. The active participation and involvement of children would go a long way to sustain behavioural change,” Mr Quayson reiterated.
Headmaster
The headmaster of Klagon TMA Cluster of schools, Mr Francis Datsa, expressed worry that the lapse security regime that existed in the school had made it difficult for authorities to ward off miscreants.
“We are sharing virtually every facility with the Klagon community as most homes do not have places of convenience. Residents who have no access to such amenities, thus walk to the school to make use of our facilities, causing them to deteriorate very fast,” Mr Datsa bewailed.
He also stressed that the student population was such that the school would in the nearest future require a bigger facility and therefore, appealed to Unilever not to relent in lending a support to the school.
The Tema Metropolitan Director of Education, Ms Veronica Adzato Ntem, who received the facility on behalf of the two schools, appealed to the chief of Klagon, Nii Bortey Klan 1, to sensitise members of the community and institute measures to sanction home owners who had converted washroom facilities into places of dwelling.
“The attitude of the people in sharing facilities with school children is repugnant and needs condemnation,” Ms Ntem stressed.
While commending the Unilever Foundation for the gesture, she assured them that the facility would be put to good use.