WaterAid gives technical hygiene training to health workers in Bongo District Assembly

Mr Jesse Danku, Wateraid Programs Manager taking participants through the behaviour centered design and ABCDE approach

Story; Zakaria Abdul Hakim Cisse || Sanatu Zambang SDGs Live Report

Since Monday, July 20, WaterAid Ghana has been engaging with the community and environmental health workers for a three-day intensive workshop on WaterAid’s Behaviour centered Approach to improve hygiene behaviour in the Upper East Region. This is part of the organization’s approach to support the government in the fight against the Corona Virus Pandemic under the Behaviour Change Campaign projects in the region funded by DFID/Unilever and Global Affairs Canada.

The workshop which ended today, Wednesday, July 22, 2020, sought to technically equip and strengthen the health workers on creative ways of delivering sanitation and hygiene practices in their respective Healthcare Facilities as well as during their community outreach activities.

Speaking to Sanatu Zambang, one of the lead facilitators, Mr. Felix Gbevillah , said WaterAid Ghana has over the years been working in the Upper East with its partners to improve access to WASH, however, it is the first time the organization is introducing the behaviour centred approach to hygiene in the region.

According to him, the organisation saw it necessary after they rolled out the Clean Community Campaign in the Upper West region over the last two years.

The Clean Community Campaign was initiated to bring behavioural changes in hygiene practices in communities. In the campaign, health workers and environmental workers are trained after which, they are dispatched to communities to educate and nurture people on hygiene practices.

The campaign uses the approach of behavioural change other than force, to instill good sanitation habits in people.

During the pilot campaign in the Wa municipal, WaterAid trained some frontline health workers of the Wa Municipal Health Directorate to run the campaign in 25 communities of the municipal. The result was phenomenal and called for a scale-up hence why Bongo municipal now.

Through the project, the organisation has been able to reposition the minds of people towards sanitation practices and have also helped built latrines in the various communities under the project. The campaign focuses on 5 key things;

  • Construct and use latrines instead of open defecation
  • Hand washing with soup under running water as often as possible
  • Safe drinking water
  • Collection and storage of water for future use and
  • Food hygiene

“We are also targeting health care facilities on how we can implement this. These health care facilities are also targeting four areas; frequent hand washing; clean toilet; safe water and medical waste management” Mr. Gbevillah  added.

Amidst the huge success, the organizers have not found it that much easier, since it requires a collective effort from traditional rulers and other opinion leaders

‘‘The work on nurturing the minds of people towards good sanitation has not been easy, which is why we introduced the campaign’’ he remarked.

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