The reigning Child Sanitation Diplomat, Maame Akua Ohenewaa Gyimah, a form one JHS student who delivered a solidarity message on behalf of Ghanaian children at the 33rd edition of Mole XXXIII Wash Conference, has pleaded with stakeholders to expand the children sanitation fair.
The winner of the 2022 maiden edition of Child Sanitation Diplomat, an initiative by Zoomlion Foundation, Worldvision and Kings Hall Media, with the support of the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources, said the Sanitation Fair and School Sanitation Solutions Challenge initiatives, seek to educate, advocate, and entertain hundreds of children who seek to empower the next generation to co-create sustainable solutions to Ghana’s environmental sanitation challenges.
“This year’s Mole Conference Series which was held at the Elmina Beach Resort in the Central Region on Monday, 31st October, 22 and was on the theme ‘Connecting systems to bridge service delivery gaps,’ has informed my decision to make this appeal because one major service delivery gap that we have observed is that children have not adequately been involved in finding sustainable solutions to our sanitation challenges,” she said.
“We therefore encourage all stakeholders to support and expand the Children’s Sanitation Fair, the School Sanitation Solutions Challenge, and the Child Sanitation Diplomat initiative.”
These, according to the reigning child sanitation diplomat, are clear innovations that seek to raise a sanitation-conscious future generation.
“Adapt these concepts at the local level so that more children will be involved and also do not think that it is out of place to create a session for children in all subsequent Mole WASH Conferences, even just a session for the children around the conference venue can make an impact,” she said.
Maame Akua also advocated for a modern toilet facility for her own school, a cluster of schools which has over 4,000 pupils, and yet share only an old and dilapidated toilet facility with less than ten seats. Worse, the facility has also been taken over by the community, which compels some of the children to attend to nature’s call in unapproved places.
“I therefore plead with participants here, and whoever is hearing me, to come to our aid else it will be difficult for me to talk about others elsewhere,” she pleaded.
