By Franklin Asare Donkoh
The 2022 Child Sanitation Diplomat, Mame Akua Ohenewa Gyimah, has revealed that more than four thousand (4,000) pupils of Dawyhen Methodist B Basic School located at Ningo Prampram in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana share a ten-seater old dilapidated toilet facility.
According to her, the facility has also been taken over by some members of the Community.
She said the situation has compelled some of the schoolchildren to defecate in bushes nearby and also urinate in unapproved places.
She, therefore, advocates the construction of a modern toilet facility with girls’ changing rooms to encourage adolescent girls to participate fully in all school activities.
The Child Sanitation Diplomat made these revelations when addressing participants at this year’s Mole XXXII WASH Conference Series at Elmina in the Central Region of Ghana.
The Child Sanitation Diplomat, who is a pupil of Dawyhen Methodist B Basic School, made a strong appeal to the government through the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources to come to the aid of the school.
According to her, the most important support that every Ghanaian child needs from the government is to provide proper wash facilities in schools, especially schools in rural areas and health institutions.
Mame Gyimah again made a passionate appeal to the public to refrain from the practise of open defecation and tasked parents and the elderly in society to set a good example for children to follow.
Touching on the theme for this year’s Mole XXXII WASH Conference, which is “Ghana’s Connecting Commitment to WASH: Connecting systems to bridge service delivery gaps”, the Child Sanitation Diplomat noted that one major service delivery gap that stakeholders have to observe is the involvement of children in finding sustainable solutions to sanitation challenges.
She called on all stakeholders to support and expand initiatives such as the Children’s Sanitation Fair, the School Sanitation Solutions Challenge, and the Child Sanitation Diplomat contest.
Mame Gyimah explained that these initiatives are clear innovations that seek to raise the sanitation consciousness of future generations.
She urged other WASH sector players to ”adopt and implement the Child Sanitation Diplomat contest among other concepts at the local level to enable more children to be involved as well as to be educated on issues such as proper handwashing, menstrual management, among others”.
