Students of the College of Community Health Nursing, Winneba, Encouraged to Join the Anti-littering Campaign
The College of Community Health Nursing, Winneba executed a routine clean-up exercise on their campus on Saturday, March 17, 2018. As part of their activities, SHAPE Attitude Ghana was invited to speak to the students on its anti-littering campaign.
Mr. Eric Sekyere Appiah from SHAPE Attitude Ghana appealed to the students to assume leadership role in the anti-littering campaign. Mr. Appiah, in his speech acknowledged that as students of health, they are already very much aware of the negative effects of poor sanitary conditions in the environment. He, therefore, urged them to add their voices to the anti-littering campaigns wherever they find themselves by drawing the attention of people seen indulging in the indecent act. He, however, added that they do so with diplomacy to avoid unnecessary confrontations. He stated that majority of people have awareness of the challenge on hand but have not been conscientised enough to abstain from indiscriminate littering. Mr. Appiah made this statement based on some of his personal encounters with people who happen to fall in that category. Some stories he shared revealed that some people do not see anything wrong in disposing off refuse in the bush, gutter or other places which are inappropriate. In such situation, continued sensitization is crucial. Mr. Appiah also advised the students to live by example everywhere they go by making sure that they do not litter and always keep their school compounds devoid of litter. He believes it will help have meaningful impact on the people around us including the younger ones who are studying from the adults.
The Director of SHAPE Attitude Ghana, Mr. Wonderful Baisie Ghartey added to the interaction by stating that there is no gain in littering. On the contrary, it affects us negatively in so many ways. He explained further by citing an analogy that it is difficult for some people to stop taking certain types of food on a Doctor’s advice for a reason of the food being delicious or being their favorite. In a situation like this, the reason for the difficulty in abstinence is defined. On the other hand, there could never be any gain that should make it difficult for anyone to put a stop to littering. To this end, Mr. Ghartey urged the students to desist from littering as it provides no positive gain. He recounted that, to a large extent, Ghana’s sanitation problem has been attitudinal, and therefore the call to a collective anti-littering campaign is in the right direction. He believes the more we have a lot of people adding their voices to sensitize people, the greater the impact.
The tutor in charge of sanitation Ms. Vivian Tackie, the president of the students’ representative council Mr. Gideon Quaye and the chairperson of sanitation committee Mr. Joseph Oware were present at the event. Ms. Regina Bonney, who represented Radio Peace Winneba, interviewed the student leadership on the motivation behind the routine clean-up exercise and also how they plan to tackle littering and other sanitation problems in the vicinity of their campus.
Add new comment