By Ojoma Akor and Esosa Osa
Power Forward project partners have enjoined students and other Nigerians to continue to practice the proper steps of washing hands in other to stay healthy.
The partners, who comprise ExxonMobil, National Basketball Association (NBA) and PanAfricare, made the call yesterday in Abuja during the donation of hand wash infrastructures to the Government Girls Secondary School (GGSS) Dutse to commemorate this year’s Global Handwashing Day.
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The Country Director, PanAfricare Nigeria, Dr Patrick Adah, said two handwash stations were donated to the school to promote and sustain hand-washing habits among students and the school community.
He said for nine years, the Power Forward project has installed 134 automated handwash stations, donated hand hygiene consumables and engaged over 200,000 students on the right steps of hand washing in the 40 project schools.
He said the implementation of Power Forward started in 2013 with 10 schools and now 40 schools across the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) of which 22 are of the FCT Secondary Education Board.
“The Power Forward is a youth life skills and public health development project that uses basketball as a convening platform that annually engages 1,200 direct beneficiaries from the 40 secondary schools in the FCT,” he added.
The project manager of PanAfricare, Terfa Akpoyibo, said the project has provided basketball supplies, and assigned a coach to each project school for the students to learn basketball.
The principal of GGSS Dutse, Hajiya Mohammad Fatima, said the donated hand wash stations would help sustain the hygiene habits of the school community.
The Director Co-Curricular FCT-Secondary Education Board, Hajiya Fatima Babba, advised students to make good use of the handwash stations and prevent damage to them.
Okwueze Martina, an SS3 student of the school said she has learnt to take hand washing seriously as it leads to good health and long life.
