Atinka FM 104.7 and Metro TV open their doors to Shape Attitude Ghana
Renowned TV and radio stations in Ghana, Metro TV and Atinka FM 104.7 respectively have thrown their weight behind Shape Attitude Ghana in the campaign on good sanitation practices especially, indiscriminate littering and dumping of refuse.
Metro TV featured Shape Attitude Ghana on their programme “Afutusem” on Monday and Tuesday, 1st & 2nd August 2016 on the occasion of the 75th Anniversary of the 37 Military Hospital in Accra.
Metro TV organised the event as part of activities to mark the 75th anniversary celebration of 37 Military Hospital to raise awareness on sanitary conditions at the military hospital, the barracks and their environs. Shape Attitude Ghana was invited by Metro TV to join in the panel discussion with the topic “Sanitation: A concern for all.”
The discussion started with a practical demonstration by Mr Ghartey where he exhibited how people end up littering their environments with all sort of plastic bags, wrappers and packages. The demonstration was followed with a question and answer session which gave the audience the opportunity to ask Mr. Ghartey questions on the act they had seen. Among the questions from the audience to him where: “What was going through your mind when you were littering?;” “Do you know you have broken the law?;” “are you not helping in spreading diseases?;” These questions and the responses Mr. Ghartey gave were pointers to the fact that there was awareness of the negative consequences of poor sanitary conditions yet our attitude and practices have not helped in averting the bad attitude of indiscriminate littering.
The Director of Shape Attitude Ghana explained that indeed the poor sanitary conditions have contributed to the spread of diseases like malaria, typhoid, yellow fever, eye infections, acute respiratory tract infections and intestinal worms. Mr Ghartey added that if we adopted good sanitary practices, more than 50 per cent of the cases reported at our hospitals’ outpatient departments (OPD) could be avoided. Major Martison Nartey, a Public Health Officer at the 37 Military Hospital and member of the panel, echoed on Mr. Ghartey’s point that about 70 percent of their OPD cases could be traced to poor sanitary conditions.
It is in the effort to help change the attitude of the public on poor sanitary practices that Shape Attitude Ghana has embarked on the project Sanitation, Health, Attitude & Practices for clean Environment to change the mindset of the population. The project targets the very young ones aged three years and above to mould them into adopting positive attitude towards our environment, the catching them young approach.
The host of the programme, Maame Korea, explained to the audience the work that Shape Attitude was doing in Winneba and how it has caught on with school children and impacting on littering in the town. She advised the audience to adopt the message from Shape Attitude Ghana to keep their surroundings clean and confront offenders who litter and ask them to pick their litter back. She asked them to be guided by Shape Attitude’s teaching of “sankofa” (go back) for your litter and their slogan “stay clean, stay healthy”
Major Martinson touched on the challenges that the military environment was facing in keeping good sanitary conditions, especially littering and reckless dumping of refuse and said the increased civilian population in their premises has added to the challenge. He however gave the assurance that they have put measures in place to address the challenge.
The host of the TV show was Maame Korea and the panel were Major Martinson Nartey, a Public Health Nurse and Mr Osei Adu, Environmental Health Assistant all of the 37 Military Hospital and Mr Wonderful Baisie Ghartey, Director of Shape Attitude Ghana.
The audience were drawn from trainees of the hospital’s training school, spouses of the military men and four volunteer personnel from Shape Attitude Ghana.
Earlier on, the popular Atinka FM radio 104.7 hosted the founder of Shape Attitude Ghana on their regular Sunday evening programme “Obrempong Ahyaase” on 24 July 2016. The programme traced the life of Mr Ghartey from childhood to present and what motivated him to come up with Shape Attitude project. The idea behind the programme is to let the youth know that it was not just by chance that great men attain success in life but through hard work, sacrifice and perseverance. Above all they do something for the benefit of their community and nation.
Mr. Ghartey’s life story showed significant traces of hard work and the determination to overcome challenges in his school life and work career. This is evident as even after retirement, he is working very hard to help sensitise people and local communities to adopt good sanitation practices. Although he is facing challenges with the Shape Attitude project, he has not given up. Mr. Ghartey made it clear to listeners that challenges in all forms at the workplace are common to all organisations or institutions and his advice was that, to achieve success, one has to be diligent, consistent, honest and transparent in his/her work, and also stay focused at all times.
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