Final year students of the Department of Theatre Arts at the University of Ghana on Thursday embarked on a cleanup exercise mixed with drama at the Nima vicinity of the Greater Accra region.

The exercise, which was under the theme “Theatre for Development,” was aimed at educating residents of the community on the importance of proper sanitation through a stage drama that involved the residents.



The activity began from the Mallam Murtala Street, as students entered the homes of the residents to invite them to engage in the ongoing exercise.

The procession was accompanied by brass band music orchestrated by members of the department.



In an exclusive interview, Unit Committee member for the Nima Research electoral area, Musah Umar Farouk, who was actively involved in the exercise, expressed his heartfelt gratitude to the organizers of the event for taking up such a good initiative to restore proper sanitation to the community.

“It’s good. Even if you will be coming every week, we would like it because some of the people in the community are lazy. They don’t do it themselves, unless someone is doing it then they would come and support,” he said

He further disclosed that his office, as well as that of the assembly member for the area, have engaged the people several but to no avail, and hence recommended that forceful measures be employed in dealing with sanitation, especially in that vicinity.

“We do talk to them always but since we are together with them, they don’t take it serious. I think if enforcement should come from outside the community, at least one or two people to be arrested and prosecuted, I think they will learn a lesson,” he added

Likewise involved in the exercise was a lecturer at the Theatre Arts department and supervisor for the project, Dr. Felicia Owusu Ansah.



She said that the project, although endorsed by the Metropolitan Chief Executive (MCE) and Assembly Members, lacked financial support.

“The MCE and Assembly Members are all in support. Financially, we don’t have much. We wrote a lot of letters trying to seek support financially because this needs money, but unfortunately, we did not get financial support. But the students are poised to see this through and that is also big-time support,” she expressed.

Speaking to Univers News, the project and publicity manager of the exercise, Abena Mckenzi, added that they intend to extend the project to other communities in Ghana who are likewise battling with the issue of poor sanitation.

“In our investigations, we realized that there are a lot of sanitation problems going on in Nima that’s why we chose here first, not that we are working at only Nima. We will be going to other places too. Nima is just a part of Ghana,” she noted.

The program was climaxed with a stage drama as well as dialogue with some figures from the community who expressed gratitude and suggested ways of combating the problem of poor sanitation to its barest minimum.

The stage drama incorporated some residents of the community who themselves contributed to the content of the script.