As part of activities marking Global Handwashing Day- which fell on October 15, Ashaiman Municipal Assembly in collaboration with Ghana Federation of the Urban Poor and People’s Dialogue- opened a Handwashing Club at Mart Academy.

Global Handwashing Day is a campaign to motivate and mobilize millions around the world to wash their hands with soap and water- as often as possible in a day.

This year’s celebration is on the theme: “Clean Hands Saves Lives”. The campaign is dedicated to raising awareness of handwashing with soap as a key approach to disease prevention.

Performing the launch on Tuesday, Mr. Ibrahim Baidoo, Ashaiman Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), said hand washing with soap is the single most effective way to prevent the spread of infectious diseases such as cholera, respiratory infections among others.

He urged the school children to take handwashing with soap very seriously, so that they would be healthy and would grow up to serve mother Ghana.

The MCE said this year, the Municipal Assembly recorded very few cases of cholera due to the regular clean up exercises that were carried out.

On behalf of the Municipal Assembly and the Ghana Federation of the Urban Poor and People’s Dialogue, he presented handwashing equipment and handwashing workbooks to the school.

Mr. Farouk Braimah, People’s Dialogue Chief Executive Officer, said the idea of the Club was to inculcate the habit of handwashing with soap to the school children, in line with the adage catch them young.

He said the Ghana Federation of the Urban Poor was working in tandem with the Ashaiman Municipal Assembly to address the issue of sanitation such as the household toilets, etc.

Mrs. Rachael Dede Annan, People’s Dialogue Research and Programme Manager, advised the school children to always wash their hands with water and soap after certain activities such as: playing with sand and visiting the washroom -so that they would not get infected with diarrheal and other diseases such as cholera.

Mr. Christian Ofei Marteye, Ashaiman Municipal Member and Proprietor of Mart Academy said the biggest challenge facing the Municipal Assembly was the issue of sanitation, which must be tackled seriously.