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Meet Ed-Hillary Leeward •The Queen of Sanitation
Ed-Hillary, popularly known as the Queen of Sanitation, is the face of the African Youth and Children Achievers, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) which champions good sanitary conditions not only in Ghana but Africa as a whole.
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Her NGO, in partnership with Zoomlion Ghana Limited, the Ghana Education Service and the Accra Metro Directorate, has assisted her in the campaign to educate Ghanaians, especially her peers to do what is right in order to keep Ghana clean.
She has also collaborated with the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources in most of her activities to fight the insanitary conditions in the country.
The Queen of Sanitation, in an interview in Accra said she had the idea to campaign against the poor sanitation in the country in 2017 when her father, a research officer on good sanitation practices, started showing her some of the pictures he had taken as part of his project which showed the poor sanitation in the country.
‘‘I got curious and asked many questions as to why the nation was engulfed in filth. To find solutions to these problems, I decided to start this sanitation project to enable me to educate my peers on good sanitation,’’ she said.
Her project
Ed-Hillary explained that her project was in four parts – hygiene, campaign against open defecation, clean drinking water campaign and sanitation.
She visits schools and communities to educate the citizenry on the importance of keeping the environment clean to avoid diseases such as malaria, cholera and other diseases.
The sanitation project has two parts, which are “ dump it right” and “waste segregation”.
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She said with the dump it right project, she had visited some public and private schools to educate her peers on the proper way to dispose of refuse.
The schools included the Kwashieman Cluster of Schools and her own school.
She has also visited some churches in Accra to talk to the congregation, especially Sunday school children about poor sanitation.
The Queen of Sanitation disclosed that she started the waste segregation project with students of Accra High School as a pilot project for a year, adding that within the year, they were able to gather all the waste materials in the school for proper disposal with the help of Zoomlion Ghana Limited.
She said this year, she would work with students of the Wesley Grammar School in Accra on her next segregation project.
Some students of the Accra High School Waste Segregation team with the Sanitation Queen.
Community project
The Queen of Sanitation said her NGO had collaborated with the Amazing Grace Children’s Foundation, an NGO in USA, to sink four boreholes for four villages.
Two of the boreholes are at Mafi Akukokpo and Bakpo Akplakope, both in the Volta Region, with the other two at Polee and Walawaleyiri in the Upper West Region.
She said she was recently invited by the European Union (EU) delegation in Ghana to participate in a clean-up exercise at some beaches in Accra.
Women in the Arts, an NGO, also collaborated with her for a clean-up exercise at the Princess Marie Children’s Hospital in Accra.
Events attended
Ed-Hillary said she was invited by the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources to speak on sanitation at the Meet-the-Press programme organised by the ministry last year.
She mentioned that the Siblings Keeper, an NGO in the USA, organised a programme during the celebration of Children’s Day at Dansoman in Accra and she was invited to talk to her peers on good sanitation practices.
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Impact
The Queen of Sanitation expressed the hope that her project would help change the attitude of Ghanaians so that Ghana could boast of a clean environment to attract more tourists.
‘‘I believe if my peers who are the future leaders get involved in the fight against the insanitary conditions in the country, Ghana will become a better place to live in a few years to come. This will help the government channel the resources used to clear heaps of refuse for development,’’ she said.
Personal life
Ed-Hillary is the only child of her parents. She is grateful to her father, Mr Eddie Leeward, who doubles as her manager and script writer, for the support he has given her since she started her project.
Her hobbies are reading and listening to music. She enjoys eating kenkey and fish with tomato sauce.