By: Franklin ASARE-DONKOH
The 2023 Child Sanitation Diplomat, Ms. Adjoa Gyakoa Appiah-Kubi, yesterday, October 31, 2023, held her first public engagement with the officials from the Jirapa Municipal Education Directorate, students, and staff of Ganaa Memorial M/A Junior Secondary School (JHS).
Ms. Appiah-Kubi’s engagement with the students and staff of Ganaa Memorial M/A JHS forms part of the coveted award she won at the fourth edition of the School Sanitation Solutions (Triple S) challenge dubbed “Child Sanitation Diplomat,” which was held at the National Theatre in Accra.
The 2023 Child Sanitation Diplomat, who is a JHS student of the Efutu M/A Basic School in Cape Coast, Central Region, was accompanied by the Minister of Sanitation, and Water Resources, Dr. Freda Prempah; the Chief Director and other directors of the Sanitation Ministry; officials from the Coalition of Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) in Water and Sanitation (CONIWAS), including the Chairperson, Ms. Beata Awinpoka Akanyani, and the Executive Secretary, Madam Basilia Nanbigne; and officials of World Vision International Ghana and Kings Hall Media, organisers of the Triple S competition.
Ms. Appiah-Kubi interacting with the students impressed on them to tackle issues of Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) with all seriousness and be sanitation ambassadors of change in their localities.
The 2023 Child Sanitation Diplomat also educated her peers on the importance of good sanitation and hygiene practices both at home and school, in churches, mosques, and marketplaces, among others.
The Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources, Dr. Freda Prempah, on her part, admonished the students to keep their environment clean at all times to avoid contracting preventable ailments like cholera and dysentery, as well as typhoid, intestinal worm infections, and polio.
Contaminated water and poor sanitation are linked to the transmission of diseases such as cholera, diarrhoea, dysentery, hepatitis A, typhoid, and polio.
Dr. Prempah urged the students to also take their studies seriously and become prominent citizens in the near future. “Take your studies seriously, and I can assure you all that you can also become ministers like me, directors, doctors, engineers, pilots, or even presidents, no matter your location,” she reiterated.
In another development, the 2023 Child Sanitation Diplomat delivered a solidarity message at the 34th edition of the Annual Mole Conference Series, which is currently underway at Jirapa in the Upper West Region on Monday, October 30, 2023, re-echoing the call for every adult, every parent, and every person in authority to refrain from bad sanitation practices and provide their families and their institutions with the needed sanitation facilities.
“I also wish to repeat that every adult should refrain from open defecation and set a good example for children to follow. This is a call that children will forever make until we notice the change that we desire. The theme you selected this year is about systems, and we children want to believe that every system we build should lead us into a clean and healthy environment,” Ms. Appiah-Kubi reiterated.