Eyram Educates Children on Sanitation

Ms Eyram Dotse, the first runner-up in the 2008 Ghana’s Most Beautiful contest, has appealed to Ghanaians to uphold cleanliness in the environment to protect children from sanitation-related ailments.

“Parents need to educate their children that the environment belongs to them and so it’s their duty to protect it and make it a safe place,” she said.

She said this in an interview after she, in collaboration with Courage Foundation International, an NGO, had paid a visit to the St Kizito R/C Primary School at Nima to educate the children on the need to champion personal hygiene and environmental cleanliness.

Her call comes at a time when there are reports of a cholera outbreak in some part of the Greater Accra Region, prompting some Nima residents, where St Kizito is located, to be worried because of the dense population in the area.

Cholera, a condition which leaves its victims dehydrated through the frequent passage of watery stool and vomiting, infected 102 people between January 11 and 17, 2009, a recent report stated.

She took the pupils through good personal hygiene practices and environmental cleanliness and advised them to keep themselves clean and avoid buying food from unhygienic places.

“Don’t buy food that looks nice but is sold at an unhygienic place and wash your hands with soap before eating,” she stressed.

Ephraim Dei-Zanga, the Director of Courage Foundation International, said the initiative to educate society on the need for cleanliness started in June last year.

He said the NGO collaborated with Ms Dotse because her vision of helping in cleanliness was in line with its, for which reason they had been to several schools to educate the children.

He said his outfit chose to use children because they wielded a lot of influence on adults and were also important to the cause of keeping the environment clean, since they were the future leaders.

Some of the pupils of the school volunteered to clean their school and its surroundings regularly.

The Headmistress of St Kizito, Mrs Teresa Kangberee, expressed her gratitude for the opportunity to receive Miss Dotse and her team and pledged to support the volunteers to help clean the school and its environs.