As agency combs Bwari in search of homes without toilets…

FCT director of NOA, Mr Richard Torhee said the agency has been working with UNICEF to ensure that the Key Household Practices are changed.   He said though many had promised to comply with the teachings of the agency, there was need to visit and see the level of compliance. According to him, officials were […]

FCT director of NOA, Mr Richard Torhee said the agency has been working with UNICEF to ensure that the Key Household Practices are changed.  

He said though many had promised to comply with the teachings of the agency, there was need to visit and see the level of compliance.

According to him, officials were asking children and youths questions to find out if their parents had done what they were asked to do.

Torhee explained, “For instance, we ask them ‘when you eat, what follows?’ They will say the food’s waste is discharged from the body. So we ask them ‘where do you discharge the waste?’ They will say ‘in the toilet.’ We ask them ‘when you don’t have toilet what happens?’ They told us Bush Attack! Meaning they go to nearby bushes.

“From there we would educate them on the dangers of doing that. It is UNICEF’s innovation that we use the youths because they are the agent of change.”

jigo

At a village called Jigo, NOA and UNICEF held a long session with the youths. Jigo is a community that was moved from the Usman Dam in the 80’s when works on the dam started. They are mostly Gbagyi.

Nathaniel Phillip, one of the youths there told Sunday Trust that they had been having series of orientation programmes with NOA and UNICEF and that had impacted positively on them. He said they have been encouraged to form associations and at the moment he is a member of Afagi Youth Association.

He said though some parents have realised the need to build toilets in their homes, some have still not due to their poor economic status.

He lamented that thought the community is close to the Usman Dam, it lacks potable water.

Another youth, Esther Istaphanus who said she belonged to Ayenajeyi Association said members have been helping in promoting the Six Household Practices as brought to them  BYNOA.

She said the association which is purely for girls has been helping in educating adults in the village on the need to immunise children, fight malaria, wash hands, prevent malaria through use of nets, prevent HIV/AIDS and keep the environment clean.

She maintained that the association particularly helps members who are wedding, sick or bereaved.

She lamented that the only water tank in the village is now unusable due to lack of maintenance.  

Kogo I

At Kogo I, the youths acted a play depicting the efforts they have been making to make adults put to practice what NOA had been teaching. The drama which created much humour showed the consequences of refusing to accept change and doing things in the unpopular traditional ways.

Head NOA, Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), Mrs Alice Zachariah Adamu was happy that the traditional head of Kogo I was interested in what they are doing.

“However, we deliberately excluded adults in this exercise because we want to get the information from the children, feel how they think and see the best way to help,” she explained.

A youth in the place, Baba Timothy, a student of the Federal Polytechnic Bida (Niger State) told this reporter that though the community had learnt how to improve itself, illiteracy has dealt it a deadly blow.

Said Timothy, “We have learnt how to improve our health. Yet some of our people still indulge in ways that are harmful. We have been taught:  how to wash our hands before eating, have our bath, not to dump waste indiscriminately; how women can breastfeed hygienically, immunise their babies so we can kick out polio.

“It has been difficult telling them to do all this because of their lack of education. But we keep on telling them the implications of living in a house without toilet for instance.”

The youth lamented that parents are not giving adequate attention to their female children who often end up marrying early. This he said has contributed significantly to the illiteracy problem. He said many leave school after primary and early secondary school education.

Sabo

The local chief of Sabo who was represented by the Madaki Sabo, Chief Jeremiah Madaki said local authorities had constituted a body that goes house-to-house to advise house owners to build toilets. He said the community is impressed with the enlightenment campaign.  

The women who sat in the village square to watch the youths’ performance which was about Key Household Practices were not happy. The elderly women particularly complained that insecticide treated nets are given to pregnant women only. According to them, the nets should be freely given to all.

But reacting to this, the UNICEF consultant, Mr Steve Daniels who came from the Ahmadu Bello University said UNICEF made available nets to the expectant mothers so as to encourage them to attend ante-natal clinic.

The essence of the programme

Daniels explained that using the youths in this leg of the campaign was aimed at working towards meeting the Millennium Development Goals (NDGs) and remembering the UNICEF’s adoption of the Rights of the Child 20 years ago.

“We’re doing this as communication for development, that is locating communication within the culture and practices of the people. We want the community to own the process of communication, to change the household practices. We partner with government and communities are appreciating this.”

For three months now, NOA and UNICEF have been visiting villages in the FCT, educating the people on how to practice simple hygienic ways and live a healthy life. It is a pilot scheme that might be replicated all over Nigeria if it records appreciable success.