Personal Hygiene – Stakeholders Advocates Effective Ways To Prevent Diseases

Dr. Mohammed Dan-Hassan, Executive Director, Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency (RUWASSA), says regular hand-washing with soap and water is an effective and affordable way to prevent diseases and have an overall healthy life.

Dan-Hassan said this in his welcome address at a one-day sensitisation to commemorate the 2022 Global Hand Washing Day in Abuja, earlier this week.

The 2022 Global Hand-washing Day themed “Unite for Universal Hand Hygiene”is a global advocacy day dedicated to increasing awareness about the importance of hand-washing with soap as an effective and affordable way to prevent diseases and save lives.

Dan-Hassan said that the hand was the first point of contact with micro-organisms and hand-washing played a significant role in reducing the transmission of outbreak related pathogens such as Cholera, Ebola and the likes.

According to him, the day is an opportunity to encourage people to maintain personal hygiene, including washing their hands, using hand sanitizers, and other appropriate toiletries.

Acting Chairman, FCT Universal Basic Education Board (UBEB), Alhaji Alhassan Suleh, who was represented by a Deputy Director, Mr Rabiu Kolawole, in his keynote address, said that it was now mandatory that students must wash their hands regularly in school.

”There should be hand washing materials at the gate and other strategic points in school even in the rural areas.

“We should all imbibe this culture in our educational structure to encourage students to keep to basic hand hygiene.”

Earlier, Sapeyi of Garki,  Alhaji Usman Ngakupi, stated that the hands were sensitive, because of contacts with a lot of activities, hence proper washing can prevent all sort of diseases.

His Royal Highness, Emir of Jiwa, Alhaji Idris Musa, who demonstrated basic steps to effective hand-washing, advised the students to always keep their hands clean at all times

He added that while washing their hands ,they must ensure that all angles of the hands and tips of the fingers were scrubbed adequately before washing under a running tap.

Mr Terfa Akpoyibo, Project Manager, Power Forward, said that peer to peer methodology was a good method to educate the pupils on inculcating the habit to children .

Power Forward is an organisation in partnership with Exon Mobil, National Basketball Association and Pan Africare, to promote hygiene and sanitation.