Health
WATERAID Nigeria has called on Policymakers to priorities Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) interventions with specific objectives to improve WASH within plans and policies.
Mrs Blessing Sani, Communication Officer, WaterAid Nigeria made the call at a Sensitisation Programme to commemorate the 2019 Global Handwashing Day at the Garki International market on Friday in Abuja.
The theme of the 2019 Global Handwashing,”Clean Hands for All” and it is celebrated every Oct. 15.
The senstisation programme was organised by the Ministry of Water Resourse’s National Task Group on Sanitation (NTGS) in collaboration with WaterAid.
Sani said that this was necessary toward achieving the goals of hand washing and universal WASH access in the country to ensure reduction in the spread of diseases.
According to her, we are also here in the market to commemorate the Global Handwashing Day because hygiene matters concern everyone, particularly in public places.
“Most times we focus on schools, healthcare centres, households but we also forget that there are other public places like the market, where people sell goods and services.
” They touch money, when they sell food, cloths among others in the market, so there are lots of activities going on within hands in the market places and the hands are the leading carriers of gems.
“We also know that hand washing can reduce the spread of diseases by between 20 to 25 per cent.
“Hand washing is believed to be a “do yourself vaccine” which has been recognised as one of the good public health interventions that help reduce the spread of diseases.
“So, we are here today, to go round and sensitise and educate them on the importance of hand washing,” she said.
Sani said that the sensitisation was the only way to educate them on why hand washing was critical and how it impact on their social economic life and their dignity.
Communication officer noted that hand washing was critical at all time before eating and after using the toilets, among others.
According to her, there is need to priorities hygiene, particularly hand washing with soap and water.
” Some people just deep their hand in water and wash but that is not hand washing. So, proper hand washing should be done under running water with soap.
“So we are trying to sensitise the people on the proper way of hand washing and how it will benefit them and how they should make it a habit,” she said.
Mrs Yemisi Akpan, Chief Scientific Office, Federal Ministry of Water Resources said the sensitisation was to education those in the market on the importance of regular hand washing.
According to her, the 2019 Global Hand washing theme says, “Clean Hands for All, it is not for only the children but also for the general public, especially for the market people.
” That is why we have decided to take the sensitisation to those in market on the need to wash their hands at all critical time.
” The fact that you are in the market, there are different times opportunity to wash hands arise, because they deal with customers and they also handle money, among others.
“Also, the essence is that we want to have a healthy nation, as our health begins with our hands and we need to wash our hands at all critical time.
“As it also creates barrier to diseases, especially killer diseases for children like diarrhea, chicken pox, among others.
“If you remember the outbreak of Ebola, monkey pox, the message out there was wash your hands at all time, so it is critical to our life style,” she said.
Also, Mr Anokam Chibuzo, Chairman, Success Traders Association, Garki International Market commended the organisers of the sensitisation programme.
Chibuzo said the sensitisation programme on Global Hand washing was educative.
” Before now a lot of people do know the importance of hand washing at critical time, most of them feels it is for children only.
“But with this practical exercise we have seen today, people have seen the need to wash their hands at all times that is after using the toilets, before eating to prevent gems.
“This is something personally, I will want to encourage the organisers to continue to carry out the awareness, especially to market areas, ” he added.
Also, Miss Rukayyat Abubakar, a fashion designer, commended the organisers of the programme, while calling on the general public to ensure behavioural change towards achieving the objective for a healthy nation.(NAN)
– Oct. 25, 2019 @ 18:39 GMT |
Tags: Hygiene interventions sanitation WaterAid wants policymakers to prioritise Water
