The Executive Director, Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency (RUWASSA), Dr.Mohammed Dan-Hassan, has said that regular hand-washing with soap and water is an effective and affordable way to prevent diseases and have an overall healthy life.
The Executive Director said this on Monday in his address of welcome at a one-day sensitisation to commemorate the 2022 Global Hand Washing Day in Abuja.
According to the News Agency of NIgeria ( NAN), 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 the Global Hand-washing day is an opportunity to encourage people to maintain personal hygiene, including washing their hands, using hand sanitizers, and other appropriate toiletries.
He added that the hand is the first point of contact with micro-organisms and hand-washing has played an important role in reducing the transmission of outbreak related pathogens such as Cholera, Ebola and COVID-19.
The day also observes government efforts in designing and sensitising the citizens regularly on hygiene.
Practising hand-washing can contribute to an individual’s well-being, increase productivity, and much more, good hand hygiene is the foundation of disease prevention and control.
Alhaji Alhassan Suleh, the Acting Chairman, FCT Universal Basic Education Board (UBEB), 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.
In collaboration with NGOs ,water has been provided for hand-washing.
For WHO to set aside a day to commemorate hand-washing it says a lot about the significance of hand-washing. he added.
The Sapeyi of Garki, Alhaji Usman Ngakupi, had earlier stated that the hands were sensitive, due to contacts with a lot of activities, therefore proper washing can prevent all sort of diseases.
I urge all of us, especially the education department to inculcate this habit into our children so that they too can pass this practice on to other children wherever they go.
Furthermore, His Royal Highness, Emir of Jiwa, Alhaji Idris Musa, demonstrated basic steps to effective hand-washing.
He also 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.
The project manager, Power Forward, Mr Terfa Akpoyibo, said that peer to peer methodology was a good method to educate the pupils on inculcating the habit to children .
In the FCT, we have donated 134 automated hand wash stations to 40 secondary schools across four FCT Area Councils, both in public and private secondary schools.
We have educated more than 200,000 students on the right ways to wash their hands, he explained.
According to NAN, Power Forward is an organisation in partnership with Exon Mobil , National Basketball Association and Pan Africare, to promote hygiene and sanitation.
There were various demonstrations like, playlets ,dance performances and demonstration of hand-washing by pupils of the Community Staff School , Asokoro, Abuja.
The Global Hand washing day is celebrated on every Oct. 15