I joined my club, the Rotary Club of Accra South, a member of the global Rotary International (RI) to inaugurate two toilet and sanitary facilities costing GH¢80,000 for two public schools in the Shai Osudoku District of the Greater Accra Region. The beneficiaries, Abuvie-Kpong D/A Primary School and Manya Jorpanya D/A Basic School, were also presented with three tippy-taps to enable the staff and students wash their hands after using the facility.
The facilities formed part of the US$4 million dollar collaboration between the Rotary International and United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to embark on water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) for Health Project in the country.
In all 13 districts in the Northern, Volta, Eastern, Greater Accra, Western and Central regions with 103,000 residents in 155 communities expected to benefit. Rotary International and USAID are committed to supporting institutions and communities practice healthy living. In ensuring this, the project is focused on providing the needed sanitation infrastructure, building the capacity of people at the local, district and national level and behaviour modification to improve basic sanitation habits.
As part of the infrastructure, the project includes the provision of boreholes to some communities to ensure constant source of water. Beneficiaries of these projects were selected following a needs and verification assessment in 2017. Within the past year, we have engaged students and people of Abuvie-Kpong to sensitize them on hygiene and sanitation and bring about change in their perceptions about healthy living.
Mr Bernard Nyamador, headmaster of Abuvie-Kpong D/A Primary School expressed appreciation to the two organisations for the support and pledged to ensure it was used to help improve sanitation and hygiene in the community. Chairman of School Management Committee, Banini Sogbe appealed for more support in addressing various challenges affecting the community.
Madam Adelaide Ofori, School Health Educational Programme(SHEP) Coordinator and Teacher of Manya Jorpanya Basic School, said the facility would help to end open defecation and reduce absenteeism by girls mostly due to problems with menstruation.
