IGWE Innocent Obodoakor, the Agulu 111, traditional ruler, has warned that careless lifestyle could bring about untimely deaths.

Igwe Obodoakor, who is chairman, Traditional Rulers Council of Anaocha LG said this at his palace during an advocacy visit by Social Mobilisation and Technical Committee, SOMTEC, a UNICEF assisted project.

According to him ignorance of essential family practices can cause someone to fall sick and implored the committee to respond fast anytime he summons them for grassroots sensitisation.

Chineze George-Ileka, the UNICEF mobilisation officer domiciled in the Anambra Ministry of Information & Public Enlightenment, noted that UNICEF had shown appreciable presence in Anaocha LG.

George-Ileka said it was successes recorded in Anaocha that motivated the group to move to other LGAs as “It is only in Anaocha that we experienced goodwill as President Generals are always supportive of the project.’’

The mobilisation officer explained that the current outreach was aimed at intimating the Igwe on the essential family practices to be promoted and unhealthy ones to be shunned, noting that if the message was spread across and people adhered to them, mortality rate would drop.

She added: “education is power and enjoined the traditional ruler to sensitise his subjects on the need to enrol in adult non-formal education’’.

Victor Ezekwo, the Hygiene Education Officer, x observed that were a number of hygiene methods such as personal, menstrual, food, environmental, safe faeces disposal and safe water chain.

Amasiana said that personal hygiene involved cleanliness of the body, especially the pubic areas noting, “our health is in our hands’’.

According to her, most times we eat our faeces indirectly through exposure of foods to houseflies.

“After defecating in toilets, we do not wash our hands effectively, as we fail to cover our foods properly, thereby exposing them to diseases.

“Cleanliness is next to godliness. Most of our sicknesses are environmental-related and therefore, we should learn to keep our environment clean.’’

The hygiene educator while enumerating some critical time for hand washing said these were before eating, after defecating, after changing diapers, demonstrated how to wash hands effectively using soap and water.

She also showed how to air-dry them as use of handkerchief or towel was discouraged.

Amasiana, however, enjoined all to boil their drinking water, use chlorine to treat the water or use ultra-violet light on water bottles after removing the label to promote hygiene as “one point source causes epidemic.’’

Victor Ezekwo, programme manager, Rural Water Shed Sanitation Agency, RUWASSA, said that they had been renovating and drilling boreholes in schools and communities but expressed dismay at high rate of theft of government facilities.

Ezekwo, then, appealed to communities to take ownership of these facilities by deploying vigilance groups to guard them.

He said that SOMTEC needed institutions like traditional rulers council to achieve open defecation-free environment, noting that most boreholes’ were littered with faeces, which affected water safety plan.

In a vote of thanks, Nathaniel Anigbo, vice-president general of Agulu, thanked the committee for the visit.

He appealed to them to come again, so that the entire village would be represented for effective communication at the grassroots.

July 27, 2018 @ 17:29 GMT|