NGO sensitises IDP’s on hand-washing, sanitation

iyebiye olawuyi

October 4, 2017 3:27 PM

The programme also involved a waste clearance exercise in the camp, as part of environmental sanitation and preventive measures to control the disease.

Smile Mission Healthcare, an NGO, has conducted a hand-washing exercise at the Muna Garage Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camp, in Borno, to control the spread of cholera in the state.

Dr Sale Abba, Project Coordinator of the NGO, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), on Wednesday in Maiduguri, that over 10, 000 displaced children in the camp benefited from the exercise.

According to him, the programme also involved a waste clearance exercise in the camp, as part of environmental sanitation and preventive measures to control the disease.

“Cholera is an orally transmitted disease through the consumption of contaminated water or food resulting from poor hygiene and sanitation."

“We are sensitising the communities to promote hand-washing and encourage behavioral change toward good personal hygiene and sanitation to control the disease."

“The aim is also to create awareness on the importance of hand-washing before eating and after visiting toilets.’’

Abba said the organisation also donated drugs and consumables to the camp clinic, as well as provided nutritional meals to children in the camp.

“The gesture is to enhance health care delivery and improve the nutritional intake of displaced children.

“We donated drugs, distributed food and balls to the children to give them a sense of belonging.

“The organisation equally set up a pharmacy store in Maiduguri metropolis, to provide free drugs to host communities so as to enhance compliance with medical prescriptions.

“This is part of our humanitarian gesture aimed at improving the health condition and well-being of persons displaced by the Boko Haram insurgency,’’ he said.

According to Abba, the NGO has registered over 200 doctors, health personnel and volunteers in its team.

He said that it had also conducted medical outreaches in different camps, distributed food items, drugs and consumables to displaced persons in the state, in the past four years.

According to statistics from the United Nations (UN) Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), 23 persons died of cholera and over 530 others got infected with cholera in the past weeks in Borno.

Cholera outbreak was reported at IDP camps in Maiduguri, Dikwa and Monguno local government areas of the state.

The state government in collaboration with World Health Organisation (WHO) and other humanitarian organisations had to set up Cholera Treatment Units (CTU) and Oral Re-hydration Points (ORP) in the affected areas.

Over 900, 000 persons were immunised against the disease in a comprehensive campaign to control the outbreak in the state.

The state ministry of health also conducted community sensitisation on sanitation and preventive tips of the disease.

iyebiye olawuyi