As part of activities to mark World Malaria Day, selected students and teachers of the Ashaiman cluster of schools have received training in waste segregation and proper waste management.

The training, organized under the auspices of the Ghana Education Services’ School Health Education Programme (SHEP), with support from the Zoomlion Foundation was also aimed at teaching both students and teachers effective ways to prevent conditions that could cause malaria.

Speaking on the sideline of the event, the Ashaiman Municipal SHEP Coordinator, Becca Arthur explained that children have a role to play in sustaining good practices in protecting the environment.

She added that improperly disposed waste such as cans and empty containers could serve as breeding grounds for disease-causing agents such as the plasmodium parasite which is responsible for causing malaria, hence, the need to ensure cleanliness at all times.

The activities for the day included lessons on basic recycling, including ways to turn plastic waste into useful artefacts and also effective waste segregation.

Zoomlion Foundation also graced the occasion with donations of dust bins, hand gloves, veronica buckets, and other sanitation materials to keep the environment safe.

The Municipal SHEP Coordination, Becca Arthur also donated sanitation items to the schools involved.

Director of the Foundation, Thomas Korley said his outfit is interested in ensuring cleanliness, especially on the part of children.

He stated that the Zoomlion Foundation has been at the forefront of championing good hygiene and sanitation among school children.

He further pledged commitment to providing facilities that will pronote the well-being of students.

“These children are our future and so there is a need to imbibe in them the right sanitation practice and knowledge,” he said.

On his part, Chairman of the Parent Teacher Association (PTA) Ebenezer Selase stated that making children sanitation ambassadors would have positive effects on various communities.

He further bemoaned poor sanitation conditions in areas of the Ashaiman Municipality emphasising the need for attitudinal change.