Parents asked to supervise children during hand washing

Isaac Nkrumah, Ho Municipal Resource Person (MRP) for the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) has advised parents and teachers to supervise and guide children when they are washing their hands.

He noted that parents and teachers mostly paid less attention to children when they are washing their hands and said their guidance and supervision would help the children cultivate good handwashing behavior.

Mr Nkrumah who was speaking at this year's Global Handwashing Day organized by Pencils of Promise on the theme "Cleans Hands for All" said handwashing was not "just children's business alone".

He said it was unfortunate that parents were not being good handwashing ambassadors for children and refusing to attend social campaigns on sanitation.

Mr Nkrumah said if parents were good sanitation ambassadors, about 70 percent Out Patient Department cases would be reduced and productivity increased.

Mr Raphael Bandim, Programmes Manager, PoP, said handwashing was singularly responsible for reducing infections among children in underserved communities and schools.

He said through their interventions hand washing had improved among students from 51 percent at the beginning of 2018 to 79 percent by the end of 2018 through the provision of toilet and handwashing stations, cleaning detergents, water filters and polytanks to underserved schools.

Mr Bandim said PoP believed in active participation of students in the campaign, effective for long-term behavioural change.

He appealed to local assemblies to provide schools with handwashing facilities to end preventable diseases and increase school enrolment.