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The Tamale Archdiocesan Development Office (TADO) of the Catholic Church has provided Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) facilities for five basic schools in the Northern and Savannah regions to help improve sanitation and hygiene practices among the pupils.
The beneficiary schools are St Gabriel R/C Primary, Kanvilli R/C Primary, Voggu R/C Primary, St Anthony R/C JHS and Wiae R/C Primary. Among the facilities are toilets, a changing room for adolescent girls and mechanised boreholes.
The intervention formed part of the Building Resilience for Improved Development and Growth of Pupils Education (BRIDGE) project being implemented by TADO, with funding support from Diester singer Kindermissionwerk, a German Catholic funding agency.
The project seeks to build the resilience of children against public health pandemics, as well as improve the academic performance and health status of basic school pupils in deprived communities by 2025.
At separate ceremonies to inaugurate the facilities, the Coordinator of TADO, Reverend Father Sebastian Zaato, said the intervention would support the School Health and Education Programme (SHEP) of the Ghana Education Service to help improve the health and academic performance of pupils.
"The facilities will help improve sanitation practices and the well-being of both teachers and pupils in the various schools. “Now, they will have toilet facilities to attend to nature's call and will also get water to wash their hands afterwards to prevent infections," he said.
He indicated that the BRIDGE project covered seven districts with 30 basic schools and had a target of benefiting about 12,000 children by 2025. While urging the beneficiary schools to take proper care of the facilities to serve the intended purposes, Rev. Zaato pledged his outfit's commitment to continue to initiate deliberate interventions to improve the standard of education in the area.
The Northern Regional Manager, Catholic Education Unit, Nyuurbome Lazarus, thanked the NGO for providing the facilities and said it would go a long way to contribute to the children’s well-being.
He, however, appealed for support for the construction of classroom blocks for the schools, since most of them were not in good shape. The Chief of Wiae in the Kpandai Traditional Area, Nana Kwadwo Ayurieye I, expressed gratitude to TADO for providing the facilities and said they would help increase enrollment and academic activities.
