Gomoa-Akotsi (C/R), Oct. 29, GNA - Ninety-One artisans drawn from Awutu-Effutu-Senya and Gomoa districts of the Central Region, have completed three-week training in the construction of toilet facilities in basis schools.

The training was organised by Plan, Ghana, a child-based non-governmental body.

Four participants, Mr John Azialekpor, Mr Charles Yeboah, Mr Kobina Mensah, and Mr Fredrick Arthur, who exhibited exemplary artistic qualities, devotion and commitment to duty, were each awarded a set of working tools valued at millions of cedis by the organizers. In his remarks at the end of the course, Mr Kojo Mbir, Programme Support Manager of Plan, Ghana, charged the participants to ensure maximum use of the knowledge and skills offered them to improve the environmental health status of the two districts.

Mr Mbir underscored the need for school kids to have a clean environment, in order to prevent communicable diseases like, cholera, typhoid fever, and tuberculosis from spreading around them. He added that children are the most valuable assets to the nation, so their good health must always be maintained and protected to ensure their speedy development physically and mentally. Mr Mbir told the participants that plans to offer more artisans in the two districts further training would depend on their performance, and expressed the hope that they would live up to expectation. In a message, Miss Joyce Aidoo, Gomoa District Chief Executive, reiterated the call on parents and guardians to take advantage of Capitation Grant and School Feeding Programme to send their children to school.

They should also embrace the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) and next month's polio immunization programme for the benefit of the nation.

Mr Paa Kwesi Simmons, Gomoa District Planning Officer and Mr. G. K. Prah of the Gomoa District Directorate of the Ghana education service (GES), who also addressed the participants, praised Plan Ghana for organizing the training and hoped it would go a long way to address some of the environmental health issues confronting people in the Awutu-Effutu-Senya and the Gomoa Districts.