21 million Nigerians in 6 states get support on COVID-19, other diseases

The Heineken Africa Foundation, WaterAid Nigeria, civil society organisations and Federal Government have expressed satisfaction after a seven-month project that expanded hygiene access for 21 million marginalised and vulnerable Nigerians in Bauchi, Benue, Ekiti, Enugu, Kaduna and Oyo states was formally closed. The N284m Scale-Up Hygiene project was aimed at complementing government’s efforts in reducing […]

The Heineken Africa Foundation, WaterAid Nigeria, civil society organisations and Federal Government have expressed satisfaction after a seven-month project that expanded hygiene access for 21 million marginalised and vulnerable Nigerians in Bauchi, Benue, Ekiti, Enugu, Kaduna and Oyo states was formally closed.

The N284m Scale-Up Hygiene project was aimed at complementing government’s efforts in reducing the spread of the Coronavirus through large-scale hygiene promotion and provision of handwashing facilities to support the practice of good hygiene in the states of intervention.

The Country Director of WaterAid Nigeria, Evelyn Mere, in a statement in Abuja said that despite the proven effectiveness of good hygiene to combat the spread of infectious diseases like COVID-19, millions of people in Nigeria do not have anywhere to wash their hands and lack the knowledge of how and why to wash hands properly.

According to her, the lack of facilities and knowledge creates a higher risk of illness and disease transmission, including the spread of COVID-19, with adverse impact on health, education, gender equality, livelihoods and socio-economic development.

“Under this project campaign, over 21 million residents around Bauchi, Benue, Ekiti, Enugu, Kaduna and Oyo states and Abuja were empowered with context-specific hygiene information and encouraged to practice good hygiene, using different promotional touchpoints including national, state and community TV and radio stations,” Mere said in the statement signed by the WaterAid Aid Nigeria Communications and Media Manager, Oluseyi Abdulmalik.

She added that about 210 non-contact and inclusive handwashing facilities were installed in healthcare facilities, schools and public places to support the practice of good hygiene.

She also said that hygiene packs containing face masks and soap were distributed to 29,000 households and 7,200 people with disabilities in the states of intervention.

She said, “Our advocacy has facilitated and continues to highlight the need to integrate WASH in health interventions targeted at tackling the coronavirus disease. While I am delighted that this project has successfully delivered on its objectives, the increasing number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 is an indication that the journey of expanding hygiene access has not ended. It has only just begun.”

She commended the Bauchi State’s provision of an additional 102 handwashing facilities, Ekiti State’s improvement of water access in four markets and Benue State’s contribution of N4m which enabled an additional 6,000 hygiene packs to be provided to households among others.

Also, the HEINEKEN Africa Foundation General Manager, Suzanne Giele, said, “Water, sanitation and hygiene have been on our agenda for many years already and I am happy that we have been able to scale up and accelerate our efforts in this field because handwashing with soap not only helps to protect against the spread of COVID-19 but also other infectious diseases. I am thrilled that together with WaterAid, we have been able to make a difference for communities during these very challenging times and after.

“It is crucial that we all continue to join hands to uphold the basic human rights to clean water, decent sanitation and hygiene for all, particularly for vulnerable communities, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa, who continue to live without access to these basic essentials.”