Volunteers of the Gambia Red Cross Society, were on Wednesday trained on environmental sanitation, by the Department of State for Health (DOSH), in collaboration with the Kanifing Municipal Council (KMC) and Unicef.

The training aims to familiarise the volunteers with the importance of environmental cleanliness. The volunteers will be deployed in Ebo Town to implement a house-to-house sensitisation campaign on environmental sanitation and the dangers of diarrhoea, cholera and other related diseases.
In the past, the area has experienced flood in every rainy season, with potential outbreaks that threaten the health of residents.

Delivering a statement at the opening ceremony, Amadou Sowe, Programme Manager of the Health Education Unit, at the Department of State for Health, said their aim is to improve on the environmental conditions of the people, through sensitisation.
Mr Sowe said “information is the key to overcoming problems”, reaffirming that diarrhoea and cholera are among diseases that cause havoc to humanity. 

He informed the gathering that the exercise is based on voluntary service, noting that the “life you safe may be your own”.
According to him, Ebo Town is a priority area, as residents have become victims of flood for the past few years.
This, he said, has exposed them to cholera outbreak and other related diseases. “We do not want that to be repeated,” he stressed, confirming that DoSH is doing everything possible to prevent any form of outbreak in the area.

Deputising for the acting Mayor of KMC, Adama Jeng, Manager of Community Service Unit, at the KMC, expressed appreciation to DoSH for the bold initiative. He welcomed DoSH’s preventive approach to any disease outbreak, saying that “prevention is better than cure”.
Mr Jeng commended the Red Cross volunteers for accepting the task and then urged them to be committed to what’s expected of them.

Pa Modou Faal, President of the Association of Health Journalists, emphasised the role of the media in the prevention of disease outbreak, and then noted that health is everybody’s business.
Other speakers at the ceremony, included Yorro Bah, Deputy Programme Manager of the Health Education Unit, Pa Ousman Manneh, Communications Officer of Unicef, and Modou Lamin Badjie, Councillor for  Ebo Town.