Soap and hand sanitizer are some of the weapons that are used by almost everybody across the country and beyond to fight the covid-19 virus, making them valuable and some of the basic necessities, especially in the era of the virus.

Until the outbreak of the deadly covid-19 virus, prices of these two items, especially hand sanitizer was quite minimal and could be procured by almost everyone.

However, the outbreak of the deadly covid-19 virus has brought about a drastic increase in the price of hand sanitizer, where those that were sold as low as GHS3.00 are now sold at GHS10.00 and above.

Students continue to practice handwashing with soap and use sanitizer afterwards, which increases sums of money parents and guardians spend on their wards even at the basic education level.

To help mitigate the costs parents incur to procure soap and hand sanitizer for their children, the Gender Commissioner of the Graduate Students Association of Ghana, University of Education Winneba (UEW) trained over 100 students from St. Peters Catholic Junior High School in Tamale on how to prepare liquid soap and hand sanitizer.

Training the students on last Wednesday at the St Peter’s JHS in Tamale, the Gender Commissioner of the GRASAG-UEW, Ms Abiba Asoma indicated that the purpose of the training was to make the beneficiaries self-reliant so that they could produce their own soap and hand sanitizer.

“During this period of covid-19 , these students spend a lot of money buying hand sanitizers. The aim of the training is to equip them with the skills so that with little resources, they will be able to produce enough sanitizers for their personal use,” she said.



She added that the students could also produce the soap and hand sanitizers for the various handwash stations in the school for the usage of students, staff and any other persons who visit the school.

According to Ms Asoma, the training was not only going to enable the children produce for house and school use but was also going to generate money for the students and their families since they could produce for sale.

“This also aims at providing the children with skills that can generate money to them even after covid-19. Some of them can start businesses in soap and sanitizer making,” she added.



A student of the St Peter’s JHS and a beneficiary of the training, Abdul-Mumin Sherifa stated that the training was beneficial to her, adding that liquid soap production was something she had always wanted to learn but never had the opportunity.

A teacher from the school, Ms Emmanuella Mwinapuo, expressed gratitude to the GRASAG-UEW for the training given to the students, adding that it was going to help the students and the school to reduce the cost they incur in purchasing liquid soaps and sanitizers.