Location: Osun State, Nigeria
Participants: 2,549
Organizations: Hope For Family Development Initiative
Hope for Family Development Initiative (HFDI) was established, as a movement to improve the lives of marginalized and vulnerable groups. It has since then been one of the leading NGO on rural development and empowerment in Nigeria.
HFDI has engaged in comprehensive response involving community awareness, public education and information dissemination towards empowering the general public, health care workers, media practitioners and other relevant stakeholders in addressing the health and social challenges posed by improper hygiene in the community.
HFDI can modestly say that it has contributed to Sanitation and Hygiene Promotions in Osun , Kwara and Oyo States Nigeria in particular.
Since 2007, HFDI have worked with over 15,600 out and in school youths, 1200 teachers and over 2000 community leaders in the rural and urban communities in promoting positive behavioral change towards Sanitation and Hygiene, HIV/AIDS prevention and provision of comprehensive services to 17,575 vulnerable children.
HFDI COMMEMORATED GLOBAL HANDWASHING DAY WITH IN SCHOOL-YOUTHS , OSUN STATE NIGERIA.
The success of the any intervention lies in the number of target population reached and the impact the intervention has made. This could be termed as the outcome of the program. For HFDI, it was not a different story during this year Global Hand Washing Day celebrated at 2 different schools (Academic of Success College, Agowande & Zion Baptist High School, Agunbelewo) within Osogbo metropolis.
HFDI with support from the school authorities and osun Rural Water and Environmental Agency (RUWESA) were able to reach out to a total 2,549 students across the 2 schools with prevention of diseases messages through effective hand washing with soaps during the sensitization program. This comprised of 1,176 male and 1,373 female.
HFDI REDUCES MORTALITY AND MORBIDITY RATE OF CHILDREN BY TEACHING THEM IMPORTANCE OF HAND WASHING AND HOW TO CARRY OUT PROPER HAND WASHING IN OSUN STATE, NIGERIA
Assumption as it is often said is the lowest level of knowledge but ignorance is the inability to make good use of information and opportunities around us even when one is fully aware of such advantages.
At Zion Baptist High School, one of the schools visited on this year Global Hand Washing Day, despite the available of the necessary facilities for hand washing, the level of emphasis on hand washing as habit and a way of keeping proper hygiene to prevent illness and diseases was low prior to visit to the school.
These facilities have not been accessed by the students due to inadequate water supply to facilitate effective use.
Positive behavioural change was the centrepiece of the message emphasized by the team of HFDI during this year Global Hand Washing Day in all the schools visited and where these activities were carried out
It was not a surprise as the students of Zion Baptist High School, Agunbelewo quickly adapt and adopt the practice of hand washing as the most cost effective way to prevent diseases and reduce deaths among children in Nigeria and their school community.
HFDI team while walking round the school premises after the sensitization program on benefits of hand washing in Zion Baptist High School found the students taking a queue to wash their hands at the existing hand washing facilities within the school compound.
The team was delighted to witness this development as it measures the essence to which information through community sensitization could drive key messages and address issues in the community and also the immediate impact the intervention in the school.
This outcome speaks volume the extent to which the intervention has impacted on the target population and to which the goal of the program has been achieved.
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