By Adekola Afolabi
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The Ondo State Governor, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, has flagged off the National Youth Volunteer Programme for Hand Washing and Clean Nigeria campaign.
Flagging off the programme at the Cocoa Conference Hall of the Governor’s Office, Alagbaka Akure, Governor Akeredolu explained that the purpose of the programme was to ensure accelerated and effective hand-washing and clean environment that will promote public health and hygiene in order to contain the spread of COVID-19, reduce poverty, as well as, put an end to Open Defecation in Nigeria by 2025.
The programme which is in collaboration with Ondo State Government, Federal Ministry of Water Resources and major Partners in the Health Sector, is expected to engage 1, 800 youth volunteers in Ondo State, (100 per Local Government Area), for community sensitisation .
He commended the organisers for their serious commitment to the programme.
Akeredolu reiterated that his administration is unequivocally committed to honouring and executing the health component of its REDEEMED Agenda, which is “Effective Healthcare and Social Welfare Services”.
He explained that his administration has made necessary arrangements to construct and distribute 10,000 Santos/Stool Slabs to assist the less privilege in building and using good toilets.
The Governor who disclosed that the development is aimed at declaring the Sunshine State, Open Defection Free (ODF) Status before 2025, further added that “we have consistently honoured our PEWASH Matching Counterpart Project”.
According to him, in addition, over 3,000 hand-pumps and motorised boreholes had been rehabilitated in more than 2,000 communities across the State in the last four years.
“Please recall that we flagged-off the Clean Ondo State Campaign in July 2020 and distributed over twenty motorcycles to designated officers referred to as Open Defecation Free Ambassadors (ODFA) in all the 18 Local Government Areas of Ondo State.
“Our administration recognises the danger in compromising public health through open defecation and we are tackling it head-on through deliberate policies and programmes. It is for this reason that we are happy to acknowledge and commend the complementary roles of the Federal Ministry of Water Resources and UNICEF in training the ODFA Ambassadors and WASH officers in the State towards further facilitating positive behavioural change in ending open defecation”, the Governor added.
Earlier, representative of the Federal Ministry of Water Resources, Mr. Peter Nwakpa disclosed that the National Youth Volunteer programme is one of the interventions of the Federal Government, through the Federal Ministry of Water Resources, to curb the Covid-19 pandemic”
He said 100 youths volunteers in each of the 774 Local Government Areas across the country would be engaged by the programme.
He added that the platform was invented to provide the needed supports to States and ensure that wash services were being prioritized as part of the COVID-19 pandemic response.
Also in her welcome address, the Permanent Secretary, Ondo State Ministry of Health, Pharmacist Foluke Aladenola commended the State Government for midas touch and giant strides in the health sector.
She added that the improvement in health sector has been felt all over the country, such as renovations and building of hospitals, equipments and better facilities to make effective welfare of the citizens a priority.
In their separate goodwill messages, the National Coordinator, Clean Nigeria Campaign, Mrs Chioma Okpara, and the State Director, National Orientation Agency, Mrs Adelayo Adefolalu, opined that open defecation should be put to an end within the shortest possible time, while all citizens in the state should intensify more efforts in sustaining a hand washing and clean environment.