Hand washing must be encouraged at schools - Minister Ramsaran

Hand washing must be encouraged at schools – Minister Ramsaran

Apr 27, 2010 News

Hand washing is a crucial factor that must not only be emphasised at the level of health care facilities but should be promoted within the schools, households and by extension, communities at large.
This notion has been underlined by Minister within the Health Ministry, Dr Bheri Ramsaran.
Addressing the issue of hand washing recently, the Minister highlighted the crucial need for the hygienic act to be boosted in the school setting. He revealed that he had observed that this practice is not always encouraged at some schools and thus must be addressed with much urgency.
“Why do vendors still not wash their hands and don’t have running water although a year ago I gave those instructions?” Minister Ramsaran queried.
He said that during a hand washing exercise at a West Coast Demerara School, he observed that vendors were engaged in very unhygienic activities that have the potential of becoming a colossal health crisis if left unattended.
The Minister said that he, along with other officials, from the Health Ministry and the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) had visited the school for the customary hand washing day last year when he detected “right in the yard vendors were washing their plates in a bucket of water and there was no other source of water.
“I assumed that they would continue that recycling process for the entire period of business.” Following his observation, the Minister said that he brought the matter to the attention of the Chief Environmental Officer and the relevant education official but had up to earlier this year learnt that nothing had been done to correct the situation.
“I was assured that the problem would have been solved…I am now knowing better from a teacher that it is not so….We need to change these things. We need to do things that are necessary. We are wasting time if we are just talking among ourselves,” the Minister asserted.
The Minister noted that the onus remains on health officials to engage certain strategic measures that involve members of the communities when addressing the issue of sanitation. This, he said, does not only include hand washing but also the importance of garbage disposal and the use of clean and safe water.
Ten million children under the age of five die every year because of illnesses such as diarrhoea, pneumonia and other diseases all of which are due to the failure of practicing prompt hand washing.
This notion was emphasised some two years ago by Health Minister, Dr Leslie Ramsammy, when he offered remarks as part of the observance of Global Hand washing Day.
According to the Minister, because proper and prompt hand washing is not practiced, diarrhoea is able to claim the lives of at least 2,000 children every year while pneumonia kills about two million children all under the age of five every year.

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Hand washing must be encouraged at schools – Minister Ramsaran

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